Boakai’s ‘Race Car’ campaign under attack

Unity Party standard bearer Vice President Joseph Boakai’s race car campaign slogan is under stinking attack from Vision for Liberia Transformation (VOLT) standard bearer Jeremiah Z. Weapoe, who says Liberia could lose the race if such race car were elected.

Vice President Boakai, who is vying to succeed President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf at the ballot box, refers to himself as a race car parked in the garage that has never been tested, calling on Liberian electorate to give him the opportunity by electing him the next President to race the country to its destiny.

According to the Vice President, throughout the 12 years tenure of the ruling party, his potentials were never utilized, arguing that he has been sitting and watching President Sirleaf conducts the affairs of state.

He publicly concedes that the administration squandered lot of opportunities that came to the country, which should have been used for development.

But presidential hopeful Weapoe debunks such excuses, noting that a 79-year-old race car parked in the garage with no spear parts cannot be trusted with state power.

“A 79-year-old race car that does not have spear parts, we do not want that because Liberia is going to lose the race”, Weapoe says.

Speaking at a presidential debate over the weekend in the University of Liberia auditorium at the Fendell Campus outside Monrovia, he says Vice President Boakai and the ruling UP should follow President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and leave the stage, having already served two terms in office.

The Constitution of Liberia restricts the presidency to two six-year terms after which the president cannot run, but the ruling is allowed to field another candidate, as in the case, Vice President Boakai.

Key opposition political parties here seem unanimous against the ruling establishment getting a third term, but they are highly fragmented to translate that into reality with 15 or more parties fighting independently at least in the first round to stop Boakai who has served two terms as Vice President.

By Jonathan Browne