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After reading this article many questions ran through my mind: WHY is
Mr Weah being treated with kid gloves? Why has he been given the
leeway to stand for election into the liberian presidency when he
still harbors his French nationality? Why were five other Liberian
party leaders with similar foreign citizenships barred from standing
for the vote when WEAH ought to be barred as well?
These are not senile questions.The first precept of good Democractic
practice is fairness. If some factions of the Liberian populace sense
that MR WEEAH is being given an unfair advantage over his opponents,
there's going to fire in LIBERIA during and after elections. we don't
want that! 150 years after independence from America, Liberia should
have been serving as a democratic role model. But what do we find? the
SAMUEL DOE Fiasco, the CHARLES TAYLOR Bloodbath, and so on! When I
think of liberia I think of Haiti in the CARIBBEAN: this wretched
country got independence from France 1804. But, you go to Haiti today!
It is an eyesore: squalor, misery, mental confusion, tension between
the MULATOS and blacks, etc.
Letliberia spare us that one!
When all is said and done, I pay hommage to MR WEAH. He and his ilk,
the ROGER MILLERS, THE PELES,ETC have done their respective nations
proud. But that is not a ticket for them to start playing foul.
I know that virtually every African head of state has a second
nationality, just in case! Won't you? What with so many skeletons in
the closet? Nonetheless, I believe that people of WEAH'S calibre
should make a difference.
What's your take on this my Liberian friends?
PETER VAKUNTA
Former footballer George Weah to stand for president of Liberia
MARGARET NEIGHBOUR
FORMER World footballer of the year George Weah has been cleared to
stand for president in Liberia.
The National Election Commission rejected complaints from rival
parties that Mr Weah should be banned from standing because he had
taken French citizenship while playing for Paris Saint Germain in
1993, although five others were barred.
The commission will tomorrow publish a list of 22 candidates who have
been approved to stand in the presidential and parliamentary polls due
on 11 October.
The elections aim to draw a line under 14 years of a civil war that
claimed 250,000 lives.
Voters will be asked to choose a successor to Gyude Bryant, the
transitional president who took office in October 2003, succeeding
Charles Taylor, after Liberia's 14-year civil war.
The process is designed to open a new chapter of democracy after years
of civil war, a spokesman for the commission said.
"Yesterday, those who were accepted were given notice, but tomorrow
the list will be published officially," the spokesman said.
Mr Weah is the leader of the Congress for Democratic Change Party and
is regarded as one of the favourites.
"I am happy about the decision because those who brought this case
against me did not know what they were talking about," Mr Weah said.
"But what we need here in Liberia is peace. We at the CDC are very
happy with the ruling and we hope that [the commission] will continue
their good work."
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