Former soccer superstar George Weah wins Liberian election

Former world footballer of the year George Weah has defeated vice-president Joseph Boakai to win Liberia’s presidential run-off election with 61.5 per cent of the vote based on 98.1 per cent of ballots cast, the election commission said on Thursday.

Mr Weah will succeed incumbent President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf next month in what will be Liberia’s first democratic transition since 1944.

Weah supporters paraded through the streets of the capital Monrovia and celebrated the success.

Mr Weah grew up in the Clara Town slum in Monrovia and went on to star for AC Milan, Paris St Germain and Chelsea. He became the only African to win the Fifa World Player of the Year award.

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His rags-to-riches story helped him tap into dissatisfaction with Johnson Sirleaf’s 12-year tenure, which drew a line under years of civil war but was criticised for failing to root out elite corruption or persistent poverty.

Weah’s critics, however, say he has offered few concrete policy proposals. His choice of running mate Jewel Howard-Taylor –ex-wife of Charles Taylor, the former president and warlord serving 50 years in Britain for war crimes in neighbouring Sierra Leone – has also raised eyebrows.

“I think Weah is not fit for the work. He will see it,” said Anthony Mason (34) who was at the headquarters of Mr Boakai’s Unity Party for the results. Weah looked set to sweep 14 of Liberia’s 15 counties in the run-off.

Turnout in Tuesday’s vote stood at 56 per cent, said the election commission. Earlier in the day Mr Boakai said he doubted that the vote was “free, fair and transparent”, without elaborating. He did not say whether he might challenge the eventual result. The second round was delayed by more than a month after the third-place finisher in October’s first round, backed by Mr Boakai, alleged fraud. The Supreme Court ultimately rejected the challenge.

Liberia is Africa’s oldest modern republic and was founded by freed US slaves in 1847. Its last democratic transfer of power occurred in 1944 and was followed by a military coup in 1980 and a 14-year civil war that ended only in 2003.

The US-based Carter Center said there were “notable improvements” in the handling of Tuesday’s vote from the first round in October, echoing positive assessments from other international observers.

– (Reuters)