By Ken Afor
On Tuesday, Liberians will cast their votes in a run-off election between incumbent President George Weah and former vice president Joseph Boakai.
Both candidates obtained similar results in the first stage of the election yet failed to secure a majority of the vote, which is necessary for a clear win.
A mere 0.39 percentage point difference in votes between former soccer star Weah (43.83%) and Boakai (43.44%) has caused anticipation for a tightly contested second round of the election.
Voters have been asked by the incumbent to provide more time for them to fulfill the promises made during his first term in office, including tackling corruption and enhancing livelihoods.
The country in West Africa continues to feel the aftermath of two civil wars from 1989 till 2003, and the Ebola epidemic from 2013 to 2016 that claimed thousands of lives.
Boakai has made an appeal to the public to save the country from the administration of Weah, which has been involved in several corruption cases.
Weah and Boakai have both received endorsements from other candidates who didn’t make it through the initial electoral round.
An essential consideration is which candidate the 6% of voters whose ballots were rejected during the initial phase will be supporting in the subsequent round.
Despite it being a generally tranquil period, some conflicts occurred between opposing groups during the election, and any purported discrepancies in the second cycle could encourage instability.
In July, the World Bank reported that although the economy had grown 4.8% in 2022 due to gold production and a satisfactory harvest, more than 80% of the population still experienced moderate to intense food insecurity.
As voters head to the polls later in the day, none of the two candidates if elected will be able to improve the livelihoods of the people, according to a taxi driver Daniel Richard who spoke to Reuters on Monday.
He said, “The decision we make tomorrow will lead to more poverty.”
