Maryland County – Six representative candidates have participated in the final town hall debate in Maryland County, while no candidates show for the electoral District Three event.
The district debates in Maryland County featured a total of 12 representative candidates from the three electoral districts. Seventeen candidates failed to attend despite invitations from the organizers.
The town hall debates are sponsor by Internews Liberia under its Liberia media development program with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Describing the event, Raymond Zarbay, a Liberian journalist working on the debate team, said the platform gave voters the opportunity to interact with people seeking public office in the county.
Zarbay said it was important for people to listen to the platforms and promises of their representative candidates so that “if elected, they will be able to hold them accountable on promises made during debates and campaigns”.
Over 1000 people watched the debate in electoral district two on September 4 in the Pleabo City hall
The first representative debate kicked off in electoral district one on September 2 at the Harper City Hall when an audience of over 900 people listened to six candidates debate key issues affecting the constituency.
It brought together three candidates in the first session from different political parties.
William W. Wallace (True Wing Party) , John Dion Kimmber (Independent) and Olayee Sunday Collins (Independent) took the podium in the morning to debate.
Later in the afternoon, Nyekapool Swen, Josephine Y. Allison and P. Mark Jury also debated in front of an audience that was also keen to ask questions drawn from thematic issues affecting the district.
Some of those attending the debate were concern about stopping ritualistic killing and land ownership in the county
In electoral district two, the debate was held in the Pleabo City Hall on September 4 with over 1,000 live audience members eager to hear the candidates’ respective messages.
Three candidates contesting, E. Wollor Topor (Alternative National Congress), Conneh Jarbo Keita (Unity Party) and Robert Neal (Liberty Party) were in attendance.
Important Issues were highlighted during the District Two debate amongst them were “eradicating ritualistic killings, youth empowerment, and land ownership”.
It was no show in district three as candidates fail to attend, which left constituents expressing disappointments in the candidates for failing to attend the event. Some asserted, “Those seeking election in the district have no interest in its people”.
Alpha Daffae Senkpeni is a multi-media journalist and fact checker with over 18 years’ experience. Senkpeni is the Director and Senior Editor of Local Voices Liberia (LVL) – a network that operates Liberia’s major independent fact checking desk. LVL has implemented several media development projects funded by USAID and the European Union. Since 2021, he has led the organization’s implementation of fact checking projects including fact checking workshops for journalists, media literacy programs, and community forums – all geared toward countering disinformation and expanding the culture of fact checking.
Senkpeni holds a law degree from the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law and a BSc in Mass Communications from the University of Liberia. He’s also an alumnus of the Radio Netherlands Training Center (RNTC) with a certificate in Digital Content to Counter Disinformation. He has also attended several fact checking trainings.
