CDC’s war drum undermines peace

The Coalition for Democratic Change is crying wolf, far ahead of the October Presidential and Representatives elections, threatening to resist ‘in the highest term any cheating’ from the National Elections Commission or NEC.

Coalition national chairman, Nathaniel McGill, who issued the threat on Saturday, 1st July during the official presentation of 35 Nassan Patrol Jeeps and 300 motorbikes as part of campaign logistics for the Coalition at its headquarters in Congo Town, gave no specific premise for beating the war drum.

However, the issuance of violent threats or war drum is synonymous to the Congress for Democratic Change, now part of a three-party Coalition headed by Montserrado County Senator George MannehWeah, as Standard Bearer.

The CDC embarked on similar path in the past two elections that it lost, which led to violent clashes with police in 2011 with at least one death reported.

The biggest political party ought to know by now that violent threats do not win elections; they are counter-productive to any democratic process, because violence takes away the political franchise of citizens.

Rather than sounding war drum, we challenge Chairman McGill and the Coalition to get on the drawing board to devise campaign strategies to attract voters’ support that would enable them to achieve their quest for the Presidency.

McGill brags that the Coalition will defeat the ruling Unity Party on a clean sheet, because it is putting in all of its might, resources, and energy into the impending elections to ensuring a one round victory. We believe this is the path he should encourage all members of the Coalition to pursue in the impeding elections.

This does not presuppose that if McGill and the Coalition observed or detected any activity at the NEC that could disrupt free, fair and transparent elections, they should not bring it to public attention for prompt corrections.

Every Liberian must put hands on deck in ensuring that this country transitions peacefully so that the next government would take up leadership without any contention.

That government could be a Coalition-led administration or any other party, but the path Chairman McGill is taking by issuing unnecessary threats may deny such opportunity, because violence could disrupt the governing process, which we as a nation, don’t want, having gone thru nearly 15 years of bloody civil war.