Published: October 5, 2026
BUCHANAN, Grand Bassa County – Liberty Party, whose senior leaders helped carry President Joseph Boakai to power in 2023, is “no helping force” and intends to hold its own place at the table when Liberia votes in 2029, Sen. Abraham Darius Dillon told partisans here Saturday, opening a question over whether the party will stay aligned with the ruling Unity Party in the next election.
By Blamo N. Toe
Dillon, the Montserrado County senator and LP’s vice chair for political affairs, spoke at the groundbreaking for the party’s permanent Grand Bassa County headquarters. He did not say whether LP would field its own presidential candidate, remain with the Unity Party or seek a new coalition. But he made clear the party does not see its future in a supporting role.
“This party is no helping force,” Dillon said.
“The time is coming when this party will come on this country again,” he added.
Dillon opened that part of his remarks by distancing himself from early election talk. “I am not one of the people who always talk about 2029, not for a day. It’s too soon for me,” he said. He then told LP members that the party was not founded to remain on the sidelines.
Portions of his remarks on LP’s 2029 strategy were unclear, but he said the party wants to bargain from strength if alliances become necessary, adding that LP “will always be on the table” while also referring to the possibility of working with others.
Dillon and LP’s leadership were central to Boakai’s victory in 2023. After Boakai chose Jeremiah Koung as his running mate on April 28, 2023, passing over Sen. Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, who had been widely discussed for the slot, Karnga-Lawrence announced on May 14 that her camp would stay with him. “We wholeheartedly endorse the Boakai-Koung Ticket,” she said at the time.
On July 4, 2023, Boakai named Karnga-Lawrence national campaign chairperson and placed Dillon in charge of the Unity Party’s Montserrado campaign.
That support came at a price inside LP. The party was split between Karnga-Lawrence and its then-national chairman, Musa Hassan Bility, whose leadership kept LP in the rump Collaborating Political Parties behind Alexander Cummings. In July 2023, the Bility-led leadership expelled Sens. Karnga-Lawrence, Dillon and Steve Zargo, along with other officials, for campaigning for the Unity Party.
Boakai went on to defeat then-President George Weah in the November 2023 runoff with 50.64% of the vote, a margin of roughly 20,000 votes, and was inaugurated in January 2024. Cummings, on the CPP ticket, had finished with 1.61% in the first round.
In Grand Bassa, LP’s historic stronghold, Boakai’s first-round share rose from 9.24% in 2017 to 34.40% in 2023, and his runoff share from 25.31% to 45.61%. The gain cannot be credited to LP alone, because Boakai’s 2023 coalition also included Koung’s Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction and a range of other defectors and opposition forces, but it came in the county where the Karnga-Lawrence camp’s influence is strongest.
Karnga-Lawrence, LP’s political leader, was later elected president pro tempore of the Senate.
Dillon’s own rise is tied to opposition collaboration. In July 2019, the four founding parties of the CPP, the Unity Party, Liberty Party, Alternative National Congress and All Liberian Party, jointly backed him in the Montserrado senatorial by-election, which he won with 102,549 votes, or 55.74%. The alliance collapsed in early 2022 after disputes over its framework document and the 2023 presidential nomination, with the Unity Party formally withdrawing on Feb. 17, 2022.
At the Buchanan event, Dillon said the priority now is rebuilding the party. He urged members to commit to LP as an institution, pay their dues and ignore distractions.
“We will only love it if we believe and we will hold it together and we pay our dues and we remain committed and we will not follow all the noise,” he said.
“For now, it’s about the country. Let’s remain united as partisans. Let’s build our party together,” Dillon added.
He tied that effort to the Buchanan headquarters project. “Earlier today, we went on the site of the land to break ground, to build our own headquarters,” he said. “When we build our own headquarters, you know Liberty Party is here to stay.”
Dillon also praised Karnga-Lawrence’s leadership of the Senate, presenting it as proof that LP can manage national responsibility.
“This woman, the grace, the courage, the strength, the resilience that she has,” he said.
He pointed to the mix of affiliations in the chamber. “We got the good people there. We have Liberty Party people there, we have independent people there,” Dillon said. “You ever hear noise from the Senate and the leadership? No!”
Coming alongside his prediction that LP’s time to lead nationally will return, the praise is likely to sharpen interest in Karnga-Lawrence’s own plans. Dillon made no statement Saturday about who might carry LP’s banner in 2029.
Deputy House Speaker Thomas P. Fallah, who spoke earlier at the ceremony, warned against building parties around individual personalities and commended LP for investing in a permanent home that can outlast any one leader.
“When one political leader leaves, they become chaos and problems with the political party,” Fallah said.
He argued that parties relying on rented premises leave little lasting infrastructure for future generations and welcomed LP’s decision to build.
“Today I’m happy,” Fallah said. “Thank you for initiating this course to have your own.”
Fallah also cautioned politicians against letting status erode their regard for ordinary citizens. “Please do not take offense. Do not take offense. Learn to respect the little man,” he said, before urging LP to finish the project. “Let’s complete the job.”
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