In the days leading up to Liberia’s runoff presidential elections, the two candidates, former football star, George Weah and Vice President Joseph Boakai, have been trying to sway voters.
They have been criss-crossing major towns and counties as Sunday marks the last day of campaigns – ahead of Tuesday’s election.
Liberians will vote to choose a successor to Africa’s first elected female president and Nobel Peace laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
She won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping bring peace after civil war turned her country into a wasteland. Her 12 years in power saw the country consolidate a post-war peace
CGTN Africa’s Fidelis Mbah in Monrovia says campaign trains of the political parties continue to disrupt vehicular traffic in the capital city. Party supporters are also seen with t-shirts adorned with the portrait of the candidates.
The vote is taking place after the Supreme Court ruling to end weeks of political wrangling over fraud allegations.
The Supreme Court had halted election preparations while it examined a complaint by the candidate of Liberty Party, Charles Brumskine, who placed third in the first round.
Both the Weah and Boakai camps have formed coalitions with other candidates who missed out of the runoff election – an indication that reconciliation among the political class has quickly taken shape.
Boakai’s chances have somewhat been affected by reported disagreement with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
He has served as Johnson Sirleaf’s vice president since her inauguration in 2006 but Johnson Sirleaf declined to endorse him and Boakai distanced himself from the last administration.
Weah’s selection of former rebel leader and President Charles Taylor’s ex-wife, Sen. Jewel Howard Taylor, as his running mate, has also not gone down well with a section of the country.
The vote is meant to mark Liberia’s first democratic transition of power since 1944.
Liberia is Africa’s oldest modern republic founded by freed U.S. slaves in 1847. But its last democratic power transfer, defined as a peaceful handover at the end of a full term, was in 1943.
The presidential poll is more than a test of the country’s democratic credentials. It also suggests that a vibrant political scene is emerging in a country that was once notorious for rebel conflicts and protracted civil war.
