Prof. Alhaji Kromah

“Soldier dies soldier takes place” is an adage we heard a lot when we were growing up. Meaning at this time in the Liberian political circle the race to fill the void left in the wake of the death of Hannah Brent, Junior Senator for Montserrado County.

Ms. Brent was a partisan of CDC. Her death has opened the chance of by-election to be held in three months in accordance with the Liberian Constitut ion. While the junior senator is just being buried, politicians are already jockeying to replace her.

Among the names that have surfaced are those of Jeraldine Doe Sherriff, Lenn Eugene Nagbe and Acarus Gray, all of CDC. Also rumored to have been considering a run for the seat is the former speaker Edwin Snow and now representative of Montserrado County.

As expected, there is no shortage of names for the post which is open to all registered political parties in the country.

Adding to the names of potential candidates for the seats is Professor Alhaji JV Kromah, standard bearer of All Liberian Coalition Party (ALCOP), Varfley Dolleh, former legislator during the IGNU era, Sam Mohammed Kromah, former president of ULAA and Losene Bility who ran an unsuccessful campaign for the senate in 2005. Even though none of the above individuals have made any public declaration of their interests to contest in the up-coming by-election, it’s been speculated in some circle that they are among the potential candidates.

From the stand point of our community, if we have to support any of the three candidates, let’s briefly examine what they bring to the table and what are their chances? Of the four politicians named above from our community, Prof. Alhaji Kromah has been around for a long time including the time when he served as leader of the defunct ULIMO.

He had twice contested for the Liberian presidency and it’s not yet clear if he would be running again as his party’s standard bearer in 2011. As a former candidate for the presidency, will he consider a run for the post of a Junior Senator? Why not, some people who I spoke to pointed at Cletus Wortoson who was a presidential candidate in 1997 and ran and won the Grand Kru County’s senate seat in 2005 general elections. As a boss of his party, ALCOP, Alhaji Kromah could gain the nomination and has a better chance of winning the senatorial seat of Montserrado County than the presidency which he may still be interested in.

Varfley Dolleh has been around for a while from his days in student politic at the University of Liberia to his time as member of the Transitional Legislative Assembly representing Lofa County. But that was not an elective position. Varfley Dolleh belonged to ULIMO at the time and served as a ULIMO representative representing his native county, Lofa. As far as party affiliation goes, Varfley is a member of CDC. Were he to win the nomination of CDC, he would have a great chance of the winning the race to fill the void left by the death of Senator Brent. With the three top CDC members already in the race, it’s not clear what Varfley’s chance in his party is.

The last time former ULAA president ran for an elected post was as a Vice Presidential candidate=2 0in 2005. Later he was considering a run for the mayor of Monrovia but the prospect for the election for that post was curtailed by the fact that as of now, the position of a mayor is filled by appointment by the president of Liberia.

Another possible candidate is Losene Bility who campaigned very hard for the Montserrado County senate seat in 2005. He ran as an independent candidate and was able to mobilize a strong grass root supports but not enough to have won as the two Montserrado senate seats were taken by the popular CDC of the soccer legend of George Weah.