(LINA) – The opposition United People’s Party (UPP) has officially endorsed the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) in an imminent presidential runoff with the ruling Unity Party (UP) next month.
In a release Tuesday, the UPP presidential candidate, MacDonald Wento, along with stalwarts of the party, announced their support at the headquarters of the CDC in Monrovia.
For his part, CDC Vice Chairman for Operations, Mulbah Morlu, expressed thanks to the UPP for its decision to come back to the party.
Morlu says the “political godfather” of the UPP, the late Gabriel Barcus Matthews, also served as a “godfather” to the CDC during the 2005 Presidential elections, noting that the spirit of Mr. Matthews will be celebrating as his children are mustering the courage to form a common front.
The provisional results released by the NEC as of October 15 puts the UPP of presidential candidate MacDonald Wento at 8,613 of the votes counted so far, representing 0.6 percent of the ballots counted.
The NEC is yet to officially announce a runoff, but Liberians are glaringly bracing for a second round between CDC and UP against the backdrop that none of the 20 presidential candidates can acquire 50 percent plus one of total votes as required under the Liberian law to be declared winner.
With final results expected this Friday after 95.6 percent of the polling places been counted, the CDC has comfortably obtained 39.0 percent of the total votes cast ahead of UP which has 29.1 percent.
