MONROVIA, Montserrado – Former international football star George Weah is poised to become Liberia’s 24th president, as provisional results from Tuesday’s polls place him in a comfortable lead over his rival, Joseph Boakai.
Weah, who is the standard bearer of the Coalition for Democratic Change, according to official provisional results announced late Thursday by the National Elections Commission, has accumulated 61.5 percent of the total valid votes with 98.1 percent of polling places reporting. Vice President Boakai, the standard bearer of the ruling Unity Party, obtained 38.5 percent of the valid votes.
All counties except Lofa, Margibi, Nimba, and Sinoe have reported 100 percent. Those counties have 0.7, 2.4, 9.6 and 18.4 percent of polling places to report, respectively.
So far, Weah leads in 14 counties, except Lofa, where Boakai hails from. The total turnout was 1,198,984 or 56.0 percent of all eligible registered voters. Total invalid votes stand at 27,873 or 2.3 percent.
The results were announced in the presence of local and international media representatives and local and international observer missions. Former Ghanaian President John Mahama, who heads the ECOWAS observer mission, was also in attendance.
Briefly following the pronouncement of the provisional results, supporters of Weah gathered outside the headquarters of NEC, celebrating and chanting slogans of victory.
CDC Chairman Nathaniel McGill told journalists in a brief comment that the results coming from NEC was welcoming and he called on supporters to be calm.
Weah, who is currently a senator of Montserrado, is expected to succeed Nobel laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and would be the first football star to become president in Africa.
Before coming to politics, Weah gained fame playing football in Europe’s top clubs. He played for Liberia’s national team and international clubs including Chelsea, Manchester City, Monaco, AC Milan, and Paris Saint-Germain, where he became the only player to be recognized as the best player in Africa, Europe, and the world, all in the same year – 1995.
Weah entered the political scene in 2005 when he first contested for the presidency. He subsequently ran as a vice presidential candidate in 2011 and lost. He was, however, overwhelmingly elected in 2014 as a senator of Montserrado, succeeding another member of his party, Joyce Musu Freeman.
Featured photo by Aaron Nah
