GBARNGA, Bong – The first provisional result in Tuesday’s senatorial by-election in Bong has put independent candidate, Henrique Tokpa, ahead of the four other candidates in the election.

With 261 out of Bong’s 502 polling places reporting and a total of 33,611 votes counted, the National Elections Commission said Tokpa accumulated 15,735 votes, followed by the Coalition for Democratic Change’s Marvin Cole, with 11,947.

Fairnoh Gbilah of the Vision for Liberia Transformation Party received 2,927 votes, Prince Kollie of the United People’s Party got 773 and All Liberian Party’s Orlando Zarwolo secured 1,507 votes.

The total valid votes amounted to 32,889, with invalid votes at 722.

Meanwhile, supporters of Tokpa have been seeing jubilating in public places in Gbarnga, claiming victory in the poll.

On Wednesday, Kwatekeh FM, a Bong radio station, reported that Tokpa had “declared himself winner of the July 31 senatorial by-election.”

Voters in Bong and Montserrado went to the polls on July 31, 2018 to vote two senators to replace then-senators Jewel Howard-Taylor and George Weah, who were elected vice president and president, respectively, in the 2017 elections.

Featured photo by Moses Bailey