Liberia’s main opposition party, the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) has received a significant legal reprieve as the Supreme Court ruled it cannot face immediate eviction from its current property in the Congo Town neighborhood of Monrovia.
The property has been at the center of a protracted legal dispute involving competing claims from rival ownership groups. In 2016, the Supreme Court established clear legal ownership of the property, which has since been occupied by the CDC.
The court’s latest decision follows a transaction in which Ebrima Varney Dempster accepted $360,000 from the CDC for the rental of the premises from 2018 to 2023.
This agreement has solidified a landlord-tenant relationship and implicitly reinforced the court’s earlier ruling, according to a court document released on Thursday.
The Supreme Court dismissed the CDC’s Bill of information seeking to join the case, stating that the former ruling party failed to provide evidence of any judicial or administrative interference.
The court also noted that an appeal related to the case remains unresolved.
The CDC has occupied the property since 2005 and held power in Liberia from 2018 to 2024 before losing control to the Unity Party. This recent ruling provides crucial stability for the opposition party amidst ongoing legal challenges.
