BY JOSEPH TUMBEY

IPNEWS – Monrovia: The political leader of the Alternative National Congress (ANC) and outgoing Chairman of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), Mr. Alexander Benedict Cummings has highlighted the progress and achievements the CPP made during his 8-month tenure as the chairperson of the largest opposition political party. The CPP comprises of four political parties, including ANC, All Liberian Party (ALP), Liberty Party (LP) and Unity Party (UP).

Mr. Cummings, on Wednesday, Feburary 3rd, turned over the gavel of the CPP leadership to Grand Bassa County Senator Nyonblee Karngar-Lawrence at a program at the headquarters of the ANC in Sinkor, Monrovia.

Senator Karnga-Lawrence, the political leader of LP is now the third chairperson since the formation of the CPP.

Speaking further at the turning over program, Mr. Cummings highlighted the numerous achievements his 8-month leadership made.

“Today, I turn over the gavel of leadership to Sen. Nyonblee Karnga Lawrence and the Liberty Party after my 8-month tenure. It has been an absolute honor serving you all. Please see below brief points on the CPP achievements and activities under my leadership:

Achievements

• CPP Accreditation by NEC
• Formation of all CPP Committees
• Formation of CPP Legislative Caucus
• Formation of CPP Legal Team
• Formation of CPP County Structures in 8 counties – Rivergee, Cape Mount, Montserrado, Grand Bassa, Grand Gedeh, Margibi,
• Launched CPP COVID Response/ Food Distribution Committee
• Met and exceeded the 30% women representation on parties’ tickets
• Successfully selected CPP Candidates for 2020 Bi-elections
– Held VPS in 3 counties
– Settled Nimba county Primary dispute
• Won 6 senatorial seats so far, 3 independents aligned with CPP, and 2 disputed counties pending the outcome of the legal case.
• Collaborated with Rainbow Alliance and CSOs on rejecting Referendum
• Conducted Southeastern Tour to support CPP Candidates and hard to reach counties
• Gave a National Address to the Nation on issues affecting the Nation

Advocacy

• Advocated for the Cleaning of the Voters Roll – VR significantly cleaned by ECOWAS Technical Team
• Advocated against the Referendum – Referendum was rejected by the public, and all propositions failed.
• Unexplained Deaths of Auditors
• Archie Ponpon Self- Emolution – contributed towards Ponpon’s medical bills and called for the salary payments of all civil servants
• Withdrawal from the National Food Distribution Committee for Irregularities- advocated against the irregularities and lack of transparency associated with the food distribution and withdrew CPP representatives from the process.

• Press Statements – Over the course of eight months, the CPP issued a dozen press statements and held a few press conferences to address issues of national concern to include:

– Statement in support of Edith Gongloe and Nimba Elections
– Statement Against Press Freedom – Threats against Radio Bushrod
– Statement of December 8 Preliminary Results
– Statement on Election Victory
– Joint Statement by CPP, Rainbow Alliance, and Civil Society or Referendum and VRU
– Statement on Cape Mount Electoral Violence Statement
– Statement on Supreme Court Grant of CPP Petition
– Statement/Letter to ECOWAS on Electoral Irregularity
– Statement on Grand Gedeh Violence
– CPP Protest Statements/letter to \NEC on unclean Voters Roll, tainted VRU, etc
– July 26 Statements
– CPP Response to 2020 State of the Nation Address

• Legal Actions– as a collaboration that promotes the rule of law, the CPP utilized the courts to action against egregious violations of our laws by the government. Paramount among these actions were a writ of mandamus to conduct the elections, clean the voters roll, and against the illegality of the Referendum.

Challenges

• Payment of dues – financial difficulties faced by parties prevented the payment of stipulated dues and fees
• Nimba County primary – posed a risk to the cohesion of the CPP but was handled by the leadership.
• Fundraising- due to COVID, it was difficult to raise funds for the operations of the collaboration and funding for our candidates during the elections.

“I pledge my full support to the Liberty Party and Madam Karnga Lawrence as they take the CPP forward. I will remain engaged with the CPP and the Liberian people and recommit to the process of ensuring the wellbeing of our people and nation. Thank you all.”