31 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Liberian President George Weah has announced his intention to run for re-election for a second six-year term in elections scheduled for October 2023.
During his State of the Nation speech, Weah stated that he will appear “to request that the mandate that he obtained six years ago be renewed for a second time” and has maintained that it will be “a mandate to continue the good work done, the continuity and the stability, transformation, development and growth and consolidate peace”
“This second term will allow us to consolidate the progress made in recent years and accelerate Liberia’s trajectory of growth, development and prosperity,” he stressed, according to the Liberian newspaper ‘FrontPage Africa’.
“Regardless of your political affiliation, your religious beliefs or your ethnic origins, I ask you to join us as we stand up to the years we lost to civil conflict and war to put our country back where it deserves. in the community of nations,” he said.
In this sense, Weah has stressed that “it is possible to do it, and we must do it all together”. “We will come to meet you in your cities, in your villages, in your districts, in your clans so that together we can build a stronger alliance for the progress of Liberia,” he explained.
“We have done our part in keeping most of the promises we made, while preserving peace in the nation and fostering its democratic values. We are on an irreversible trajectory of sustainable growth that will necessarily and inevitably lead progress as a nation and prosperity as a people”, he argued.
“When we stood before you to ask for a first term, we promised change for hope. Now, after having traveled this journey with you, you have seen the change. Now we want to guarantee that it is a change you can count on,” he concluded.
The opposition has accused the Liberian authorities of corruption and mismanagement. The United States announced in August 2022 sanctions against three senior officials of the Liberian government, which led Weah to remove them, considering the accusations made from Washington “serious”.
The fight against corruption is set to be one of the major themes of the campaign for the 2023 presidential elections. The current president came to power in 2017 with the aim of improving the quality of life of the population, but in these years they have maintained the scandals and the suspicions about the political class.
