LIBERIA opposition leader Joseph Boakai was is on the verge of beating incumbent George Weah in the presidential election.
Preliminary election results announced today gave Boakai a slim lead over Weah with nearly all votes counted.
Weah, who is regarded as one of the best footballers in African history, is currently the President of Liberia having won the election in 2017.
The 57-year-old Weah played for big European clubs like Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan and Chelsea, and won the CAF African Player of the Year, Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards in 1995.
Boakai, 78, a former vice-president who lost to Weah in the 2017 election, had campaigned on rescuing the small West African country from what he calls mismanagement by Weah’s administration, whose first term was marred by allegations of corruption.
Boakai led with 50.89 percent of the vote over Weah’s 49.11 percent, according to results from 99.6 percent of polling stations, the country’s elections commission said on Friday. Final results are expected in the coming days.
The result is radically different from 2017, when football legend Weah roundly beat Boakai with 62 percent of the votes.
Many Liberians have since grown disillusioned with the lack of progress as poverty, unemployment, food insecurity and poor electricity supply persist, Reuters reported.
Boakai is more than 28,000 votes ahead of Weah, according to the latest results.
He and Weah emerged neck-and-neck from the first round of voting in October but below the 50 percent needed to secure an outright victory, leading to Tuesday’s run-off.
Supporters in the Liberian capital Monrovia defied the rain and celebrated in the streets after the near-final results were announced today.
“We can safely declare victory – Boakai is the next president, but we will wait for the final result before celebrating,” Boakai’s spokesperson Amara Konneh told journalists.
PHOTO: George Weah (left) and Joseph Boakai.
