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Liberian President George Weah will go for a run-off against challenger Joseph Boakai on November 14 as the first round could not decide who is the winner since none of the candidates go beyond the 50% mark, set as the threshold of an outright victory.
Liberian President George Weah will go for a run-off against challenger Joseph Boakai on November 14 as the first round could not decide who is the winner since none of the candidates go beyond the 50% mark, set as the threshold of an outright victory. In the first round, which was one of the closest elections, Weah, a former international soccer star, failed to win an absolute majority and took 43.83%, whereas his closest opponent Boakai led a crowded field of challengers with 43.44%, a neck -to -neck fight
The two politicians last faced off in the 2017 vote. However, Weah ultimately won 60% of the vote in the second round. It was the first democratic transfer of power. The country faced a tumultuous past because of back-to-back civil wars between 1989 and 2003. It took the lives of some 250,000 people.
Upon getting elected last time, Weash, analysts say, failed to achieve the high hopes he doled out to the people, such as eradication of poverty, infrastructure development, and weeding out of corruption. The impoverished country is still caught in the past. He also promised to take Liberia from a low-income country to a middle-income one.
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https://trendsnafrica.com/ecowas-warns-against-premature-announcement-of-liberian-election-results/
Boakai, who served as vice president under Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first democratically elected female leader, is an underdog, who was edged out by Weah in the 2017 election. It is still wide open whether he could give back to Weah in the same coin this time around. Political analysts do not rule out the electorate giving him a chance since they had already experimented with Weah. Also, he possesses experience as an administrator under Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as Vice President.
