President George Weah of Liberia announced to the legislature that he would seek reelection this year following a first term tainted by accusations of corruption and a recession.
Weah, who was elected in 2018 following the first peaceful transfer of power in the nation of West Africa in seven decades, is constitutionally qualified to fight for reelection on October 10.
“I will be coming to you shortly to ask you to renew my term, a mandate that you gave me six years ago,” he said in parliament on Monday, pledging to pursue transformation, growth and peace.
Weah defended his first term, saying: “Let me assure you that the state of our nation is strong. The state of our nation is stable … The state of our nation is peaceful and secure. We intend to keep it this way.”
A military takeover in 1980 and a 14-year civil war that concluded in 2003 have left Liberia still in recovery.
Weah, a former international footballer who came from a Monrovia slum and ascended to renown, won the most recent general election by a landslide in 2017 thanks to the backing of the underprivileged and young.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s predecessor, the 56-year-old leader, was heavily criticised for failing to fight rampant corruption.
However, corruption is still rife in the nation, with Transparency International putting Liberia 136th out of 180 nations in its corruption perceptions index for 2021.
As a result of a corruption scandal in 2018, Weah’s administration was accused of misusing public funds and lost $100 million in freshly minted central bank notes.
