By Festus Poquie
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to parade across the capital Monrovia today as President George Weah and the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change are accelerating push for a second term mandate in office.
CDC officials dubbed the event as the official launch of the 2023 elections campaign although the President has already covered seven counties including vote-rich Montserrado where he has toured all 17 districts.
The campaign rally aims to send a message to the world that the former World Footballer of the Year is still popular with the West African nation’s 5.2 million population despite perception that he underperformed and not in touch with the people.
Elected 2017 after securing a landslide victory, Weah is wooing voters on account of his first six years performance, which he prides as an ‘unprecedented” era of public infrastructure development and economic growth amid global health and commodity crises and war in Europe.
In the shantytown of West Point, which lies along the Atlantic a Oceans, the 54 year-old incumbent leader told the estimated 40,000 dwellers there that his humble beginning as a ghetto child motivates him to leave a successful legacy that will disable people to look down on slum dwellers.
“They told you that George Weah knows nothing but the people of West Point I have done something, “he declared.
“My performance is to show to you that if a child from Gibraltar (Monrovia slum) can do something, a child from WestPoint can do something too.
“In our five years you can see unprecedented level of development in our country. We don’t know nothing but our record can show.
“In five years you got free education. George Weah that knows nothing built more hospitals in this country than any government. George Weah that knows nothing built more roads than all the Presidents that led this country.”
“We want to leave a legacy that tomorrow nobody will point at a child that was born in the ghetto or play football.”
Twenty candidates including former Vice President Joseph Boakai are pushing to unseat Weah in the scheduled October vote, which 2.5 million people are expected to participate amidst struggles with raising inflation and surging food price.
