Liberia votes in presidential runoff
Democratic transfer of power will be the country’s first in more than seven decades
MONROVIA, LIBERIA— Young Liberians went straight from all-night Christmas celebrations to the polls Tuesday for a runoff election between a former international soccer star and the country’s vice-president, who are vying to replace Africa’s first female head of state.
For the first time in more than 70 years, the West African nation founded by freed American slaves will see one democratically elected government hand power to another.
Nearly 2.2 million voters have the choice between 51-year-old former soccer star and senator George Weah and 73-year-old Joseph Boakai, who has been vice-president for 12 years.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 79, is stepping down after two terms in office that brought the impoverished country out of back-to-back civil wars and saw it grapple with a deadly Ebola outbreak.
The runoff was contested twice in court amid claims of irregularities, with its original Nov. 7 date delayed.
The first-round Oct. 10 election brought high numbers of voters, and officials hoped Tuesday’s vote would be no different. The National Elections Commission has said voter lists have been cleaned up according to Supreme Court orders. They had been posted at all 5,390 voting places.
As polls closed around 6 p.m., election workers said turnout wasn’t as high as the October elections because legislative candidates who were helping transport people to polling stations were not participating in this vote. Some Liberians complained they weren’t able to find their names at voting stations, so they couldn’t cast a ballot.
Results for the runoff will be announced progressively, though the commission has two weeks to give final results.
Earlier in the day, both candidates said after voting that they were pleased with the turnout.
“This is a great day because it is a test of democracy,” Boakai told The Associated Press after voting. “We have delayed, we’ve gone through the court process, this is what the process has produced and we are prepared to live with it.”
Weah also spoke after casting his vote, saying, “This is a good process, and a very peaceful one, which is the most important.”
This is Liberia’s first independently run election since the end of its backto-back civil wars. The United Nations has helped to oversee past votes.