With its presidential elections billed for today, Liberia, the first African country to produce an elected female president, might yet make history as two women are among those in the race comprising 18 men, including the incumbent, George Weah.
Some Liberian analysts reportedly described today’s presidential elections as a three-horse race with top contenders being incumbent President George M. Weah, former Vice President Joseph N. Boakai, and former Coca-Cola Executive Alexander B. Cummings.
However, Sara Beysolow Nyanti and Bendu Kromah are the female presidential candidates slugging it out with the men. While Sara Besolow Nyanti is contesting on the tickets of the African Liberation League (ALL), Bendu Kromah is an independent candidate.
Recall that Liberia in 2005 had its first female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who contested and won under the Unity Party, defeating current President George Weah.
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Though that was not Sirleaf’s first trial at the polls, the victory recorded a huge milestone for African women, especially in the quest for gender equality, and rewarded her years of persistence.
Despite having a female president, Liberia, like other African countries, struggled at gender equality, especially when an attempt by the new electoral law to legalise the 30 per cent quota for women representation was reportedly vetoed by President Weah recently, a move that had been widely criticised by women groups and activists in the country.
However, the pursuit for a 30 per cent affirmative action in Liberia like in other countries is said to be meant to fast-track equal representation in politics, closing gender gaps in national decision-making amidst prevailing limiting factors for women.
Though reports revealed that the country is still far from achieving gender parity, for instance, a 2022 Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) report indicates that the country’s bicameral legislature currently has a 12.33 per cent female representation, where women occupy only nine out of the 73 seats in the legislative arm.
Observers say these figures might witness a drop after today’s general elections as the list of female candidates as provided by the country’s National Election Commission is 153 out of the 1,030 aspirants.
Despite these concerns, Liberia is said to have performed better than most African countries on the global scale as far as gender parity is concerned. The country ranked 39 out of 146 countries in the 2023 global gender gap index by the World Economic Forum.
However, the recorded feat of delivering the first elected female president still gives hope for another female president for Liberia.
Will Liberia deliver another female president?
As the trend has been with the “incumbency factor” in politics, the chances of unseating a serving president are reportedly slim because of so many factors.
Despite having two women on the ballot for the presidential election, Sara Beysolow Nyanti seems to have garnered more visibility than her other female counterpart, which could have been connected to the global humanitarian roles she played in the past as well as key roles within the country.
Though they have both been described as political greenhorns, in comparison to the number of male contenders on the ballot, the chances of a female president are still not obvious.
With a voting population of about 2.4 million according to the country’s National Elections Commission (NEC), having a female president, as provided by the law, would mean that either of the female candidates must win at least 50 per cent of the votes cast. Meanwhile, in a case where no party reaches the threshold, the two parties with the most votes in the election will proceed for a run-off election, won by a simple majority.
Speaking about the chances of a female president in Liberia, Mary Ikoku, founder of Emerge Women Development, in an interview with Daily Trust while acknowledging Nyanti’s remarkable efforts and campaign reach, expressed doubt over her ability to win the elections based on certain factors that, according to her, might not favour the female candidate.
“The fact that she joined the race a bit later than others, an early joining would have given her enough time to cover most grounds if not all grounds, and secondly her political party platform is not so known among the big parties. So, she has not been sold to the public for a long period of time which is something you also need to do in electioneering.
“There’s also something about the power of incumbency which George Weah has above most of the candidates and then being a woman even though Liberia has experienced the first female president,” she said.
Ikoku added that even though Nyanti came with a lot of democratic ideals and a lot of competencies for the job she submitted, many people still don’t know her and what she is capable of doing.
The female presidential candidates
Sara Beysolow Nyanti: Born in 1968 to the family of Winston Beysolow and Frances Hayes, Nyanti was the oldest of seven children and an ordained Reverend at the Zion Grove Baptist Church in Brewerville.
Nyanti was said to attend the College of West Africa and thereafter proceeded to Cuttington University, after which she obtained a master’s degree in public administration from the New Charter University in the United States.
With about two decades working as a development expert, Nyanti’s campaigns have been anchored on encouraging patriotism against other vices capable of causing divisions and harm to the unity of the country.
Notable among the organisations Nyanti has worked for include UNICEF, UNDP, and the World Bank. She is married to Stephen Joeboe Nyanti, with children and also grandchildren.
On the other hand, Bendu Kromah was born in Gbarnga City, Bong County where she reportedly grew up and attended Cuttington University. She then proceeded to the University of Liberia and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics and mathematics.
Kromah later obtained a master’s in business administration in the United States of America where she worked as a civil servant in the state of California.
According to information from her LinkedIn profile, Kromah is currently a senior auditor at the state compensation insurance