MONROVIA, Montserrado – The Senate has elected Sen. Saah Joseph of Montserrado to serve as the chair on the Committee on the Executive.
The vacancy was created after the death of the late Sen. Geraldine Doe-Sheriff of Montserrado. The election was held on Tuesday, July 2. The chair of the committee serves as the liaison between the president and the Senate and is one of the more senior leadership posts in the Senate. The chair usually assists the president pro-tempore in the day-to-day running of the Senate.
Doe-Sheriff had served as chair until her demise earlier this year. Joseph was nominated to the leadership post by Bomi’s Sen. Sando Johnson and he was the lone candidate for the post.
After being sworn to the post, Joseph said the fact that he was chosen by the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change party to replace President George Weah at the Senate speaks volume of the cordial relationship with the Executive Branch.
“I want to take this time to express my thanks and appreciation to all of you for electing me as your Chairman on Executive,†he continued. “I promise that I will not disappoint you.”
Joseph also commented on his plans to improve the welfare of staffers at the House of Representatives, noting that he would make that a focus of his tenure as a key leader of the Senate.
Specifically, the Montserrado lawmaker said he would address broken down buses that are specifically used to transport Senate staff to and from work.
“You cannot have staff at the House of Representatives coming to work in their buses and our staff at the Senate are transporting themselves,” Joseph said.
The senator won the hearts of Liberians for his work during the Ebola epidemic that began in 2014. A representative at the time, Joseph helped procure ambulances that helped to transfer highly contagious Ebola victims to treatment units. In 2017, Joseph was re-elected to represent Montserrado’s 13th district. A few months later, however, he was elected in the 2018 by-election to replace President George Weah’s in the Senate.
Featured photo by Zeze Ballah
