Tyler to head 3-party coalition?

Reports coming from the Margibi County branch of House Speaker Alex Tyler’s newly formed Liberian People Democratic Party or LPDP, say Tyler is in merger talks with several political parties, including the main opposition Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), All Liberian Party (ALP), and the ex-ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP) of former President Charles Ghankay Taylor for a possible marriage to form a formidable force for the 2017 elections.

An official of the LPDP in Margibi confided in this paper the ongoing discussion is serious and being embraced by the parties allegedly involved. The source explained that if the marriage works, Tyler would head the coalition, while CDC George Weah, who was running mate to Cllr. Winston Tubman in 2011, would become vice standard bearer, and businessman-turned politician Benoni W. Urey of the ALP will contest for a representative seat in Montserrado County in order to vie for the prestigious Speaker post in the House of Representatives.

However, the official, who preferred anonymity, did not define the status of the NPP in such impending coalition, but added that talks were in an advance stage and very fruitful. However, pundits say such coalition is purely imaginary as the CDC has always claimed the standard bearer post in any coalition as its exclusive right. They based their pessimism on a failed CDC-Liberty Party talks in 2011 and even now, with the party seems unyielding in having its leader, Senator Weah heads any future coalition, boasting of having numerical strength.

Politics is said to be a game of chance and possibility, and Tyler’s dream of getting the nation’s highest office could become achievable; this is, if the embattled Speaker, currently indicted by the court, is exonerated of multiple charges, including bribery and economic crimes.

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