JUST IN: LIBERIAN PRESIDENT GEORGE WEAH CONCEDES DEFEAT TO OPPOSITION LEADER BOAKAI AFTER TIGHT RACE

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Agency Report

Following a close presidential run-off, Liberian leader and football hero George Weah announced that it was “time to put national interest above personal interest” and conceded a loss to opposition leader Joseph Boakai.

In Liberia, the oldest nation in Africa established by freed American slaves, Boakai was ahead with about 51 percent of the votes, according to the most recent and virtually full figures.

“The results announced tonight, though not final, indicate that… Boakai is in a lead that we cannot surpass,” Weah said in a speech on national radio late on Friday.

He said his CDC party “has lost the election but Liberia has won,” adding: “This is the time for graciousness in defeat”.

78-year-old Boakai was defeated handily by Weah, 57, in the 2017 second-round presidential contest.

According to the electoral commission, Boakai has received 50.89 percent of the votes cast following Tuesday’s second-round voting, with more than 99.5 percent of polling places providing vote counts.

The numbers released on Friday showed that Boakai had 28,000 more votes than Weah. Weah had a narrow nationwide lead of 7,126 votes over her opponent when they finished neck and neck in the first round last month.

The election of Weah, the first African football player to win the Ballon d’Or and FIFA’s World Player of the Year trophy, raised hopes for reform in Liberia, a country still recovering from two consecutive civil wars and the Ebola outbreak that struck in 2014–2016.

However, some have charged that he has broken a pledge to enhance the lives of the poorest people and that his government is corrupt.

“President-elect Boakai on his victory and President Weah for his peaceful acceptance of the results,” the United States said in a statement.

“We call on all citizens to follow President Weah’s example and accept the results,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

‘Liberian People Have Spoken’

Weah said he had spoken to Boakai “to congratulate him on his victory”.

“The Liberian people have spoken, and we have heard their voice. However, the closeness of the results reveals a deep division within our country,” Weah said in his speech.

“Let us heal the divisions caused by the campaign and come together as one nation and one united people.”

Weah who remains president until the handover of power in January pledged to “continue to work for the good of Liberia”.

It will be the second peaceful handover of power from one democratically-elected government from another in two decades.

The elections were the first since the United Nations in 2018 ended its peacekeeping mission, created after more than 250,000 people died in the two civil wars in Liberia between 1989 and 2003.

International observers, including the European Union, have commended Liberia for holding a peaceful election.

Regional bloc ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, said the poll was “largely” peaceful, but noted isolated incidents that led to “injuries and hospitalisations” in four provinces.

Clashes during the campaign left several dead before the first round and raised fears of post-election violence.

Around 2.4 million Liberians were eligible to vote on Tuesday and the turnout was roughly 66 percent, according to the electoral commission website.

Boakai is an old political hand, having served as vice president to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first elected female head of state, from 2006 to 2018.

Liberia is home to around five million people and one of the poorest countries in the world.

More than a fifth of the population lives on less than $2.15 a day, according to the World Bank.

AFP