Weah out in front in Liberia run-off
LIBERIA: The former footballer George Weah was claiming victory in Liberia’s presidential run-off yesterday.
Weah, 51, was well ahead of Joseph Boakai, 73, the vicepresident, and his campaign team said it expected the senator to take about 70 per cent of the vote, based on the ballots counted.
Weah was Fifa world player of the year in 1995 and has played for top clubs including Chelsea, Manchester City and AC Milan. He said that he was ‘‘very confident’’ that he would be declared president.
‘‘The Liberian people clearly made their choice,’’ he said on Twitter. ‘‘We are on the verge of making history for our people.’’
The first round of voting in October gave his Coalition for Democratic Change a narrow but insufficient lead over the ruling Unity Party. A court challenge by the candidate in third place, citing fraud, delayed the run-off by seven weeks.
Weah ran for the presidency in
2005 but lost to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is stepping down after two terms. Liberia’s last democratic transfer of power was in
1944. A military coup in 1980 plunged the country into years of civil war and authoritarian rule in which 250,000 people, about 8 per cent of the population, died.
Weah and Boakai have said that they will accept the result provided there is no credible evidence of fraud.
Observers said it had been a free and fair election held without a single major incident of violence, despite frustration over the fraud allegations, legal challenges and delays. Many voters said they were eager for the country to move forward and celebrate its second democratic handover of power.
‘‘No matter the results, we will accept it without causing problems. We don’t need trouble here any more,’’ Samuel Nuahn,
46, who voted for Boakai, said.
Despite both candidates having come from humble backgrounds, the vice-president of 12 years is regarded as the establishment candidate.
Weah presented himself as a fresh start after Johnson Sirleaf, who has been accused of failing to dent endemic poverty and corruption. His background as a footballer and promises to create jobs and bolster education has made him popular with young urbanites in particular.
Commentators have, however, raised questions about his political alliances with polarising figures from the civil wars, including the former rebel leader Prince Johnson. Jewel Howard-Taylor, Weah’s running-mate, is the ex-wife of Charles Taylor, the former dictator, who has pledged his support for Weah’s party from prison in Britain, where he is serving a
50-year sentence for war crimes. John Mahama, a former Ghanaian president who is leading west African observers, appealed for candidates not to ‘‘jump the gun’’ and call the election before the official result, which is expected today.