Nearly 300 journalists under the banner of the Reporters Association of Liberia (RAL) on Saturday, October 29 elected a new corps of officers to steer the affairs of the association’s leadership, headed by Willie Tokpah of FrontPage Africa newspaper. Tokpah defeated the incumbent leader, Mark Mengonfia of News Republic Newspaper.
Others elected Henscin Dehgar and Augustine Saah both of Truth FM as Vice President and Secretary General elect, and Bobby Tingba, Assistant Secretary general elect.
The newly elected officials will now replace the leadership headed by Cecelia Clarke of the Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS), which guided the group through three challenging years of COVID-19 and its impacts.
RAL is the largest auxiliary of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL).
The new RAL leadership election took place ahead of the elective congress of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) on November 12.
While the current PUL president, Charles Coffey will not be opting for re-election because he has reached his constitutional limit of two terms, incumbent Vice president Daniel Nyakonah will compete with Julius Kanubah, another former official of the union.
Hundreds of journalists have updated their membership as a requirement to vote in the election.