Liberia, in less than two weeks, will decide among 20 candidates who are contesting for the country’s highest seat.
This presidential race saw a drop in the number of candidates as compared to 2017, which had 21 candidates
President George Mannah Weah of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), who is seeking reelection for a second six-year term, will be challenged by the contenders to persuade the 2,471,617 million voters of their merit to do so.
| Alexander Cummings | Collaborating Political Parties’ (CPP) |
| Lusinee Kamara Sr. | All Liberia Coalition Party (ALCOP) |
| David Kiamu | Democratic People’s Party of Liberia (DPPL) |
| George M. Weah | Coalition for Democratic Change |
| Alexander Kollie | Reformers National Congress (RNC) |
| Bendu Alehma Kromah | Independent |
| Richard Saye Miller | Liberians for Prosperity |
| Robert Franz Morris | Independent |
| Sara Beysolow Nyanti | African Liberation League (ALL) |
| Allen Brown | Liberia Restoration Party |
Cummings
Is a Liberian politician and businessman. He critiqued President George Weah’s governance, accusing his administration of rampant corruption and poor leadership that have plunged Liberia backwards.
Cummings claims that he has the longest list and has given the most assistance and contributions to individuals and institutions, more than any politicians or humanitarian groups in Liberia.
Age: 67
Party History: He is the standard bearer of Liberia’s Alternative National Congress. This is the second attempt at the presidency. He contested the 2017 elections as one of five among 20 candidates. Currently, he is running as the head of the Coalition of political parties
Family: Cummings has been married to African American Teresa Cummings for over 35 years. Together, they have two children, Ayo and Boikai Cummings, and five grandchildren. Recently, his wife responded to a claim by a social media user identified as Hassan Fadiga. Boika is said to have donated a fleet of vehicles to his father’s campaign, according to an executive of the party.
Kamara
Kamara wants to lead Liberia towards modernization by addressing pressing socio-economic needs, instituting crucial institutional reforms, and implementing effective policy measures to combat crime within society.
A businessman and politician says there is no politician in Liberia with vast experience that can champion private sector innovation, which is required to stimulate the nation’s economy, like him.
Kamara: “If your worry is about economic growth and opportunities for everybody, then we are the closest choice for you. If you want private sector innovations and management skills, combined with the leadership experience of government institutions, to inform sound decision-making, we are the closest choice for you.”
Kamara is said to be one of the biggest sponsors of the largely Mandingo war groups United Liberation Movement for Democracy (ULIMO) and LURD.
He was appointed speaker from the ULIMO slot before the 1997 election and was charged with theft but was acquitted based on the government’s procedural error.
Age: 69
Party History: The All Liberia Coalition Party (ALCOP) is a traditionalist political party in Liberia that was founded in 1997.
ALCOP was led by the Islamic politician G.V. Kromah, and it won three of the 64 House of Representatives and two of the 26 Senate seats in the 1997 elections.
Kromah ran again as the party’s presidential candidate in the 2005 elections. He won 2.8% of the vote. The party won one seat in the Senate and two in the House of Representatives.
Kamara became the political leader of ALCOP in 2020 after Kromah became incapacitated.
He was elected on the white ballot as the standard bearer of the party during the party’s national convention on December 3, 2022, in Gbarnga, Bong County.
Family: His parents are the late Alhaji Faboli Kamara and the late Haja Mahawa Bility. His father was a businessperson while his mother was a housewife. Their union was blessed with 14 children. He is married to Haja Saran Drame Kamara.
Kiamu
Is the director of World of Life Ministries, a satellite ministry of Word of Life Fellowship in the West African Region?
He is the founder of a growing church denomination in West Africa known as the Evangelical Free Churches of West Africa or EFCWA.
Kiamu says the Weah administration is under immense national and international pressure to fight corruption and strengthen the rule of law.
Kiamu said service delivery is very ineffective, inefficient, and not able to deliver any service, adding that the government has scored 0% when it comes to effective service delivery.
Age: 57
Party History: The Democratic People’s Party of Liberia’s first presidential candidate is Kiamu. The party held its first national convention in Grand Bassa in 2022.
Family: Kiamu has been married to Lucy Kiamu for 31 years, and the union has three children. Lucy and her husband run the Word of Life Ministries and, in 2014, Live Life Liberia.
Kollie
Says there will be no second suffering for Liberians under Weah’s administration.
He declared that his decision to run for president was motivated by the enormous hardship that Liberians face daily, and he wants to alleviate them from poverty.
Kollie, a health practitioner and a reverend, believes he has the remedy to the country’s piled up and unresolved problems.
Party History: Kollie was a member of the People Restoration Party, but a tussle led him to establish the Reformers National Congress.
The Reformers website has no information about Kollie except this;
“We, the members, officers, and standard bearers of the Reformers National Congress (RNC) political party of the Republic of Liberia, wholeheartedly dedicate ourselves to the transformation of our nation’s economy and society through noble principles and the rules of law for a freer, prosperous, and stronger Liberia where everyone has the opportunity to achieve the “Sweet Liberia” Dream. So help us, God.”
Bendu
Is an auditor and an economist. She says when elected, she will provide 300,000 jobs, and there will be mass production of produce from Liberia. “Liberia needs to improve on agriculture, specifically importation.”
According to her, she is a resourceful and results-oriented person and will look at infrastructure developments like roads, rehabilitation of the disadvantaged youth, otherwise called “zogoes,” and invest in agriculture, as well as make prudent use of the resources.
“Liberia is not poor. We have to maximize resources; we have to do a forensic audit of our resources; we have to protect what comes from soil; and we have to go to our concessionaires to renegotiate some of the contracts for them to increase what they have been giving us.
“We need to produce more rubber because it will increase our income; we can get a lot from rubber, tires, gloves, etc.,”, she said.
She was dubbed $6,000 by a man identified as Angel Sherman by a fraudster in 2023
Age: 64
Party: Bendu is new to the political space and is currently contesting as an Independent candidate
Family: She hails from Bong County and is a mother of children, including Aya, Prinyea, Mia, and five grandchildren.
Morris
Criticize the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC)-led government for doing the worst to increase the suffering of Liberians.
He believes that Liberians can make a U-turn, saying it rests in the hands of the young people. “Our nation needs saving, and the young people are the only ones who can save Liberia,” said Mr. Morris.
He served as Deputy Manager at Roberts International Airport He also runs Phoenix Services, a real estate company and Uplift
Party: He is contesting as an independent candidate, and in 2005 he contested in Margibi District No. 1.
Family: Morris has been married for 12 years, and the couple has two sons. His family hailed from Margibi County
Weah
The incumbent president is facing 19 candidates.
He says his first term, which ends this year, laid the foundations for peace, freedom of speech, macroeconomic stability, and restoring confidence in the national educational system.
In 1995, Weah became the first and only African footballer to win the Ballon d’Or, an annual award for the world’s best player, during a career in which he played in the French, Italian, and English leagues.
Weah wears a different hat these days, serving as president of the West African nation of Liberia—one of the region’s poorest countries and once a private US colony—since 2018.
Age: 57
Party History: Weah contested in 2005 as President and in 2011 as Vice President to Cllr. Winston Tubman, and in 2014 he was elected as Senator of Montserrado, which he won with 78 percent of the vote.
Weah has twice been the standard bearer of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC). In 2017, when the party emerged with the National Patriotic Party of jailed Liberian President Charles Taylor, Liberia, it was changed to the Coalition for Democratic Change.
A founding member of the party, Joshua Sackie, who served as the first national vice chairman for administration and the first acting national chairman, threatened to kill himself if he was not given a job.
Family: Weah is married to his Jamaican wife, Clar Weah. The couple celebrates 31 years of marriage. There are three children.
On a 48-day trip that included the US-Africa Summit and visits to conferences in Morocco, Egypt, and France, Weah and Clar went to Qatar in December 2022 to watch their son Timothy Weah play for the United States.
The trip attracted criticism from political opponents and civil society groups at home.
This year, Timothy launched a US$20,000 scholarship fund drive for underprivileged children in Liberia.
Miller
Is a business and environmental expert. He thinks that Weah is incompetent to run the affairs of Liberia. Miller says Liberians should look at the candidates who have a vision for Liberia instead of the prominent parties.
Party: Miller announced his candidacy in 2015 but never in 2017. He runs on the Liberian for Prosperity Party ticket that was certified in 2017.
Sara
reports say she was the highest-ranking Liberian in the U.N. system but recently retired.
Sara says she is fit for leadership, mounting a defence of her quest for the Liberian presidency. The presidential hopeful rhetorically asked who is a better leader than she in Liberia, telling reporters in Monrovia that she is cancer-free after three successful surgeries.
Age: 55
Party: The African Liberation League (ALL) has a greater number of disenchanted members from the People Liberation Party (PLP) of the deceased Daniel Cassell.
Cassell removed Chairman J. Wilmot Paye, the current Unity Party senator, Kansualism Kansuah, and other PLP executive members from their respective positions.
Kansuah now serves as the first national chairman of ALL.
ALL was certified in May 2023, according to Carlos Edison, the party’s secretary general.
Family: Sara and Stephen have been married for 23 years.
Brown
He says he envisions a more resilient and robust Liberian economy for future generations by developing sectors such as manufacturing, technology, and tourism.
He highlighted the critical importance of agriculture to the country’s socio-economic development and intends to prioritize its transformation through mechanized farming and empowering local farmers.
He is a businessman and the co-founder of Liberia Renaissance Education Complex (LREC).
Brown is known as one of the financiers of ex-President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf which landed him a rice monopoly in 2005.
Party History: The Liberia Restoration Party has been embroiled in internal political turbulence since 2017 due to negative propaganda amongst party officials.
Age: 62
In 2017, the founder of the Movement for One Liberia, Macdella Cooper, who is also supporting Boakai, contested on the party’s ticket.
Family: Brown is the son of the deceased Allen Brown, a businessman, and Irene Mensah Brown, a trained nurse. Brown has two siblings and a son.
