There have been a lot of coups in West Africa. The good news for democracy is that Liberia just held a free and fair election.
The African Union (AU) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) observation missions declared in a joint statement that the elections on Tuesday were conducted in a free and fair environment.
There have been coups in Niger (twice), Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso (twice), Gabon, and Sierra Leone in the past three years in the area around Liberia.
The head of the AU Election Observer Mission (EOM) is former South African vice president and member of the Panel of the Wise Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
“Despite the heightened political atmosphere, the political environment was generally peaceful, with little violence during the campaign period,” she added in her opening remarks.
Political actors utilised the polarised media environment to propagate propaganda, deception, and misinformation in the days before the general elections as sociopolitical tensions rose.
All political parties committed to conducting themselves lawfully and in good faith by signing the Revised Farmington River Declaration 2023 prior to the elections.
According to Mlambo-Ngcuka, the announcement reduced political violence that was present in the run-up to the election.
“The declaration served as a check on their behavior and helped reduce the tension in the elections,” she said.
The majority of the materials required to conduct the elections were raised locally with little outside financing or support. Parties in the polls have no concerns about foreign meddling.
The final results have not yet been made public.
The 1996 World Footballer of the Year, George Weah, is running for reelection to a second six-year term in office. Joseph Boakai, a 78-year-old former deputy president who served under Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first elected female president of Africa in 2005 and 2012, is his biggest opponent.
Elections were held for 73 members of the House of Representatives and 15 senators.
The National Elections Commission (NEC) said that 2.4 million people were eligible to vote.
The primary difficulty, according to the joint AU-ECOWAS observation team, was that the polls took place during the rainy season. Election-related materials were not delivered on time to some distant areas of the nation and some were destroyed.
However, “no major incidents were observed or reported to the Mission that may have compromised the integrity of the elections” despite concerns over security and storage of the documents.
In Liberia, all elected seats are decided by first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting, whereas the presidency is decided by a majoritarian, two-round system.
To be declared the winner in the first round, a candidate for president must receive an absolute majority of the valid votes cast, which is 50% plus one vote.
If no candidate fulfilled this condition, a run-off would be scheduled for the second Tuesday after the release of the final results.
The president, members of the legislature, and the senate each have six-year terms that can be extended once.
Both observer missions urged restraint prior to the release of the results.
“The ECOWAS and AU appeal to the people of Liberia to exercise maximum patience and remain calm while awaiting the declaration of the final results,” they said in a statement.
Liberia, a nation that suffered more than 250 000 fatalities from two civil wars between 1989 and 2003, would benefit from a good election.
