Boakai’s running mate recommended

A member of the governing Unity Party and former Deputy Internal Affairs Minister Rennie Jackson says if Unity Party standard bearer-elect Vice President Joseph Boakai fails to carry Ambassador Jeremiah Sulonteh as running mate, he will personally support Sulonteh to join with any other presidential candidate in 2017 against Boakai. 

Mr. Jackson, currently residing in the U.S. and Ambassador Sulonteh are both executives of the governing UP that held its national convention over the weekend in Gbarnga, Bong County where VP Boakai was elected on while ballot standard bearer, replacing President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Ambassador Jeremiah C. Sulonteh is Liberia’s Ambassador to the United States, Canada and Mexico. Speaking recently at the Frances Mitchell Auditorium in Kakata, Margibi County during program organized by the “Friends of Sulonteh” or FOS in honor Ambassador Sulonteh, Mr. Jackson said Sulonteh is not just an Ambassador, but Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to America, Canada and Mexico.

He said the Liberian Envoy is someone who has met with President Obama, the leaders of Mexico and Canada as well as more than 192 ambassadors from various countries aroubd the world, adding when it comes to contacts and international experience, Amb. Sulonteh is qualified.

The ex-superintendent of Bong County, who lost the 2014 Special Senatorial Election in his county, said some time ago in April, he wrote cross-session of citizens in Bong, telling them that this time around, Bong County and Liberia need someone who knows about government and has international contacts and experiences.

According to him, approximately 95 percent of respondents figured Ambassador Sulonteh. Meanwhile, Sulonteh who has not made his position clear whether or not he will contest for the Presidency or go as running mate in 2017, is being widely speculated to become standard bearer of the opposition People’s Unification Party or PUP that has branded itself as an indigenous party.

It may be recalled that a member of the governing council of the PUP Representative Emmanuel Nuquay recently said the party is not inclined to producing a standard bearer, but one of the two prominent sons of Bong County Dr. Henrique Flomo Tokpa and Ambassador Jeremiah C. Sulonteh may head the party to pair with either Sen. George Weah of the Congress for Democratic Change or Vice President Joseph Boakai for the 2017 Presidential and Representative Elections.

By Ramsey N. Singbeh, Jr. in Margibi -Editing by Jonathan Browne