Liberia - November 2024

An ongoing stalemate between two factions of Liberia’s House of Representatives over attempts to remove the Speaker, deepened in November, as the larger faction (the Majority Bloc) purported to elect an alternative speaker and suspended three members of the opposing grouping that is loyal to the speaker. In October, the Majority Bloc began holding separate sittings after failing to garner the two-thirds majority required to remove Speaker Jonathan Fonati Koffa, whom they accuse of corruption. At the beginning of December, there was uncertainty about which speaker would be recognised by President Joseph Boakai and the Senate, which suspended cooperation with the House. The crisis has held up the passage of the 2025 draft national budget and caused popular frustration, at a time when the country is facing economic and governance challenges.

Sources: New Republic Liberia, Front Page Africa (1), Front Page Africa (2), Liberian Observer, The Africa Report