SAN FRANCISCO, December 29, (THEWILL) – Former football superstar and Liberia’s President elect, George Weah, has promised ‘change’ as he accepted his victory in Tuesday’s presidential runoff polls in Liberia.
“My fellow Liberians, I deeply feel the emotion of all the nation. I measure the importance and the responsibility of the immense task which I embrace today,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
“Change is on”, Weah wrote shortly after the results were released by the National Elections Commission (NEC), putting him in a comfortable lead to be the next president of Africa’s oldest republic.
The Chairman of NEC, Mr Jerome Korkoya, who released the results at a news conference in Monrovia on Thursday, said 98.1 per cent of the total votes cast in the polls had been counted.
Weah, a former World Footballer of the Year who ran on the platform of the opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) is way ahead with 720,023 votes or 61.5 per cent.
His rival and incumbent Vice President, Joseph Boakai, of the ruling Unity Party (UP) is far behind with 451,088 votes representing 38.5 per cent.
The announcement was greeted with massive celebrations by Weah’s supporters in the capital, Monrovia, and across the country.
Meanwhile, the European Union Election Observation Mission has described the successful runoff polls as a “milestone achievement’’ for the country’s democracy.
“An undeniable aspect of this significant election is the collective effort that underpinned its realisation,” the mission said in its preliminary report issued on Thursday.
“Voters, civil society, Liberian institutions, in particularly NEC, the judiciary and the Liberian National Police, the domestic observers and ECOWAS all contributed to make this important for Liberia’s democracy possible.”
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