Liberia’s electoral commission decided on Tuesday to hold the election in November after both candidates, President George Weah and opposition leader Joseph Boakai, failed to receive enough votes.
According to the West African country’s Electoral Commission, 100 percent of polling stations show Weah leading by a narrow margin with 43.83 percent of the vote, while Boakai is slightly ahead with 43.44 percent of the vote.
Davidetta Browne Lansanah, commission chairperson, said a second vote would be held on November 14.
According to him, there was a record turnout of 78.86% of the 2.4 million registered voters.
The October 10 election looks set to test support for Weah, 57, a former soccer star who has been criticized by the opposition and Liberia’s international partners for not doing enough to fight corruption during his first mandate.
During the election campaign, he asked voters to give him more time to fulfill his promises to rebuild the country’s destroyed economy, institutions and infrastructure, and promised to build more roads if re-elected.
Liberia has struggled to recover from two civil wars between 1989 and 2003 that killed more than 250,000 people and an Ebola outbreak between 2013 and 2016 that killed thousands.
Boakai, 78, was Weah’s main opponent and campaigned to save Liberia from the alleged misrule of Weah’s government.
This would be Weah’s third contest in Liberia’s presidential election. He first ran in 2005 but was defeated by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
He returned in 2017 after garnering experience as Senator and contested with Boakai and after two rounds of elections Weah was declared winner and was sworn in 2018.
