Liberia Elections: Weah holds slim lead over Boakai as vote counting continues
Liberia’s incumbent President George Weah continues to hold a slim lead over fierce challenger Joseph Boakai in the country’s presidential election, with nearly 73 percent of the votes counted.
According to local media, the National Elections Commission (NEC) had tallied 72.92 percent of the votes by Monday morning, with results showing Weah with 593,558, accounting for 43.80 percent of the votes counted.
The closest challenger, Boakai had accumulated 589,977 votes, representing 43.54 percent.
The two candidates are among 20 contesters who registered to run in the West African country’s October 10 presidential election.
The elections are the fourth in post-war Liberia, but the second to be organized in the absence of the then United Nations Peacekeeping mission in Liberia.
The elections observer mission deployed to Liberia by the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) said Friday the elections were conducted smoothly and in a largely peaceful atmosphere.
The mission called on the National Elections Commission (NEC) to “diligently but urgently work to ensure the timely and transparent release of the results to diffuse any latent tension that may arise out of the long waits for results”.
The Professor Attahiru Jega-led mission also urged Liberians and all stakeholders to remain calm and await the official declaration of the results.
For a candidate to be declared winner of the election in the first round of voting, they must attain more than 50 percent of the votes cast. If no candidate hits the tally, a runoff vote is conducted with only the top two candidates from the first round. In the second round of voting, the candidate with more votes wins the election and is declared president-elect.
Liberia’s election laws give the NEC 15 days to announce the result of the elections after voting.
