Liberians head to polls for runoff vote

Former soccer star, vice president squaring off

MONROVIA, Liberia — Liberians head to the polls Tuesday for a runoff election between a former international soccer star and the vice president 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.

The runoff was contested twice in court, with its original Nov. 7 date delayed after the third-place Liberty Party filed a complaint of fraud that was dismissed.

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 served as vice president of the impoverished nation for 12 years.

Liberians showed up in large numbers for the first-round election Oct. 10. Economist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is stepping down after two terms in office that brought the country out of back-to-back civil wars and grappled with the Ebola outbreak that killed nearly 5,000 Liberians in 2014-2015.

National Elections Commission lead lawyer Musa Dean told The Associated Press that everything was ready for Tuesday’s vote and that a mandate by the Supreme Court for a cleaned-up voter roll to be posted at all 5,390 polling places will be met.

Many Liberians turned out over the weekend to check their voter registrations, with some finding it difficult.

“We can’t be left out,” said one, Pinky Frank. “This election is about our future, our children’s and their children’s future, so we have to take it seriously.”

Sirleaf initially said she would support her vice president, but amid allegations that she preferred Weah she has backed off publicly supporting either candidate.

Weah draws his support from the younger generation. This is his third time running for the presidency, and 60 percent of Liberia’s population is under 30.

Weah leads the ticket for a coalition party, the Congress for Democratic Change, with Jewel Taylor-howard as his vice presidential running mate. She is the ex-wife of imprisoned former warlord and President Charles Taylor.