Published: September 6, 2026
MONROVIA — Liberia’s leading opposition parties agreed Sunday to build a joint structure to confront the Boakai government, naming a committee to write the terms of their cooperation and draft a communiqué setting out their common positions.
By Blamo N. Toe
They stopped short of a coalition. Nothing was announced on leadership, electoral arrangements or a presidential ticket for 2029.
The agreement closed two days of talks at Jamaica Resort in Paynesville convened by former President George Weah, drawing the CDC, ANC, CMC, MPC and NPP along with Nimba County Sen. Samuel G. Kogar, former lawmakers and other opposition figures. ANC political leader Alexander B. Cummings, CMC political leader Rep. Musa Hassan Bility and MPC political leader Simeon Freeman were among them.
Each party will nominate two members to the working committee, Freeman said, and parties that did not attend will be given a chance to join. The leaders expect to reconvene in about two weeks.
“The opposition doesn’t have teeth, and we’re beginning to make the opposition have teeth to work together to begin to counter those issues that are of concern to the people of Liberia,” Freeman said.
“We’ve agreed to set up a working committee to structure a framework acceptable to all parties, agreed to issue a communique, and agreed to also work together, and the structure of that working together is what that committee is going to provide,” he said.
Weah said the talks were timely and that opposition leaders have a duty to protect Liberia’s peace while holding the government to account. He criticized the administration over what he called actions that undermine the rule of law, pointing to the security deployment that met him at Roberts International Airport on his return.
“What we saw the other day at the airport… I am a citizen of this country and a former president. I came into the country, and you see the number of police and army; it is not okay. I could just walk out of the airport, walk to the people, and get in my car; why should a whole force be at the airport?” Weah said.
“We held a very good deliberation and moving forward, we will ensure what our country needs to be and how we can work together to make sure that we guide our peace,” he said.
Cummings said the leaders had agreed to set their differences aside.
“This is the first of many interactions… There is a theme by the Chinese that says, ‘you have to move slow to go fast. We’ve agreed to work together because at the end of the day, this is about the Liberian people, and not about us; it’s about speaking truth from the hearts of the Liberian people,” Cummings said.
He said the group would press the administration on its handling of state resources and institutions.
“We want them to work for the Liberian people, we want them to not prosecute selectively, and we want them to guide the resources of this country,” Cummings said.
Bility said the aim was a common front rather than a bloc built only on opposing.
“The goal is very simple: to create a common front not just about countering but holding the government accountable for what is happening today; we’re happy that we’ve come together and we’re happy that we all agreed to put a document together that will take into consideration all of our views that will be an opposition unity to rescue the country,” Bility said.
Weah says the administration is undermining the rule of law and objects to the airport deployment; Cummings alleges selective prosecution. Insert comment from the Unity Party, the Executive Mansion, the Liberia National Police on the deployment, or an explicit line naming who was contacted, when, how and with what result.
Weah and Cummings were rivals for the presidency in 2023. Nothing announced Sunday settles which of them, or anyone else in the room, would lead the front they say they are building.
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