The results of the presidential election showed that the two front-runners, President George Weah and opposition leader Joseph Boakai, had not received enough votes, thus the electoral commission of Liberia on Tuesday set a run-off election for November.
According to total results from all polling stations, Weah has a slight advantage with 43.83 percent of the vote, while Boakai has 43.44 percent, according to the electoral commision of the West African nation.
The run-off vote is scheduled on November 14, according to commision chairperson Davidetta Browne Lansanah. A record 78.86 percent of the approximately 2.4 million registered voters cast ballots, according to her.
Many view the October 10 election as a litmus test for the 57-year-old former soccer star Weah, who was slammed by the opposition and Liberia’s foreign allies for not doing more to combat corruption during his first term in office.
While on the campaign trail, he made a commitment to reestablish the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, institutions, and economy in exchange for more time, promising to pave more roads if reelected.
After two civil wars that claimed over 250,000 lives between 1989 and 2003 and an Ebola outbreak that killed thousands between 2013–16, Liberia is still recovering.
The primary opponent of Weah, Boakai, 78, ran on a platform of saving Liberia from what he claimed was mismanagement by Weah’s government.
