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Liberian leader and football legend George Weah conceded defeat to opposition leader Joseph Boakai after a tight presidential run-off. He said it was time to put national interest above personal interest
Liberian leader and football legend George Weah conceded defeat to opposition leader Joseph Boakai after a tight presidential run-off. He said it was time to put national interest above personal interest. The election result was hailed by world leaders who termed it as a victory of democracy.
The 78-year-old Boakai lost to Weah, 57, by a large margin in the second-round presidential vote in 2017. Boakai had garnered 50.89 percent of ballots cast, according to the election commission. The two finished neck-and-neck in the first round last month, with a narrow lead of just 7,126 votes for Weah.
Liberia is still reeling from back-to-back civil wars and the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic. Critics have accused the Weah government of corruption and failing to keep a promise to improve the lives of the poorest.
The United States congratulated “President-elect Boakai on his victory and President Weah for his peaceful acceptance of the results”. The European Union (EU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) complimented Liberia on the largely peaceful conduct of the second round of the presidential election. Observers from these entities were present to monitor the election process in the West African country.
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According to the EU mission, Liberia’s election body has demonstrated its ability to peacefully conduct the first elections to be held without the presence of the United Nations mission in Liberia (2003-2018), which was set up to guarantee peace after the civil wars that claimed more than 250,000 lives between 1989 and 2003 and whose memory is still vivid.
ECOWAS also congratulated all stakeholders on the “largely” peaceful elections, although it noted isolated incidents in the provinces of Lofa, Nimba, Bong, and Montserrado, which resulted in injuries and hospitalization. While the political freedoms of candidates and their supporters were largely respected, the use of State resources by the ruling party continued to distort the rules of the game, the EU mission found. It also condemned inflammatory comments made on social networks, which increased in the run-up to the second round.
