Charles Dunbar Burgess King (12 March 1875 – 4 September 1961) was a politician in Liberia of Americo-Liberian and Freetown Creole descent (his mother was an Americo-Liberian). He was a member of the True Whig Party, the oldest party in Liberia which ruled the country from 1878 until 1980.

King, who was a graduate of law, started his profession at the Supreme Court and later at the State Department. He was among the individuals who signed the Treaty of Versailles.

King was the Attorney General from 1904 to 1912. He moved on to become the Secretary of State in 1912 and held the post until 1919.

He served as the 17th President of Liberia from 1920 until 1930.
President Charles King won the 1927 presidential elections with a landslide victory that earned him a third term in office and a place in history but different from what he might have imagined.

The Guinness Book of Records (1982) qualified the elections as the most fraudulent ever reported in world history. 15,000 thousand Americo-Liberians only were registered to vote but the official election results showed that an unbelievable 240,000 votes were cast in favour of Charles King.

After apparently acquiring his presidential post fraudulently, he appeared to have acquired adversaries because of the poor economic state of his nation. This condition constrained him to look for financial help from the United States government. Indeed, even that method was tedious as negotiations took seven months because of Congress ending all foreign loans and extension of foreign loans.

Even after the House finally gave its endorsement for a loan, Congress despite everything obstructed the loan. This left Liberia open to exploitation by the British and French.

While King was in office, he faced accusations from the defeated presidential candidate, Faulkner of forced labour and slave-trade within the country. The then League of Nations, which Liberia joined in 1919, established a commission under the British government to investigate the allegations.

In 1930, the League of Nations published their findings, indicting King and his cabinet.

Subsequently, King, his Vice President Allen Yancy and some members of his cabinet resigned.

King died on September 4, 1961.



Pictures Courtesy:
Peace Palace Library
Face2face Africa
Wikipedia

Interesting indeed

Imagine...

Where is he now? So dead and gone!

But why do I think someone made a template of his electioneering skills here in Nigeria cos I am yet to meet someone who voted for this said man?

Everyone I try to confirm if he voted for this man keeps saying they didn't... So how was he elected?

Obviously Africa has been blessed with more bad leaders than good ones, from time immemorial ...

Congrats to him

Liberia is one example why I think Nigeria will most likely NEVER develop

Liberia has been free and independent since 1847 but have had bad leaders upon bad leaders for 172 years

Maybe We are just cursed people

According to Islam and Christianity and every major non African religion

The Jews(Judaism), isrealites(Christianity), Arabs(Islam) , Americans(Mormons), Indians (Hindus) and many more Taoism, Jainism, etc all have CHOSEN people all of which are not us

So let us hug our suffering since we don't want to have sense

We prefer to be the richest man in our village than for every body from our village to be middle-class that is our problem

Until we are ready to develop our minds and environment we should keep wallowing in stupidity and hopelessness

Goodluck Nigeria, Goodluck Liberia, God/Allah bless Africa. The none African gods ofcourse please find time to bless us and develop us we have been praying to you since before 1960

I am telling you, only in Africa

Yemike:
15,000 registration to vote but 240,000 voted in favour of the presidio.



When I thought I've seen it all from PDP and APC.

My brother...

Only Africa u can get some news,we have been seeing bad leaders from time immemorial and keep blaming white men for our own mistakes.

Nigeria is the most impostor elections in the world wide not Liberian

davibid:
Obviously Africa has been blessed with more bad leaders than good ones, from time immemorial ...

Just imagine, Liberians have been ruling themselves even before World war 1, and is still one of the most poorest country in Africa in 2020. I feel bad for Africa

Sunshinegold44:
Nigeria is the most impostor elections in the world wide not Liberian

Well, that is your view