APA-Monrovia (Liberia) Opposition candidate Joseph Boakai is upbeat about giving incumbent President George Weah a good run for his money in Tuesday’s presidential run-off.
There are 1,949,155 Liberians registered to vote in 5,890 polling stations nationwide, according to the National Electoral Commission.
The 10th October presidential and parliamentary elections witnessed a 78.86 percent voter turnout.
The two fierce rivals could not be separated in last month’s presidential vote which required more than 50 percent of the ballot to avoid going into a run-off, according to Liberia’s electoral laws.
Election observers in Liberia say the results of the November 14th runoff could be anybody’s guess.
”It could tilt in anybody’s favour now that it has reached a second round and Boakai would be the more satisfied of the two candidates after forcing the vote into a runoff where his chances could be greater given the thin margin of the results” they point out.
Weah, who has been president of Liberia after his election in 2018 polled 43.83 percent slightly ahead of Mr. Boakai who garnered 43.44 percent.
The margin between them was just 7,100 votes.
There were six other candidates for the presidency in the first round.
Weah, a former World Footballer of the Year is the candidate of the Coalition for Democratic Change while Boakai a former vice president was put up by the Unity Party.
Liberia, a country with a bloody civil war past has held four elections since the end of the conflict in 2003 which claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people.
The presidential run-off takes place against the backdrop of biting economic hardship for Liberians, a situation which inspired Dr. Boakai to fashion his campaign as a rescue bid for Africa’s oldest republic from the clutches of an ‘incompetent leadership’.
He accused President Weah’s government of neglecting the economic crisis and allowing rampant corruption ‘to choke ordinary Liberians’.
Weah and his supporters are pointing at continued political stability and infrastructural development as hallmarks of his first term in office.
WN/as/APA