Provisional election results released on Thursday by the National Election Commission indicated that ex-football superstar, George Weah, emerged winner of Liberia presidential run-off, beating Vice-President Joseph Boakai.
Weah is set to replace incumbent Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who took over at the helm of Africa’s oldest republic in 2006.
The NEC said Weah had won an insurmountable 61.5 per cent of Tuesday’s vote, which was delayed several weeks after a legal challenge from Boakai, AFP reports.
The commission added that with 98.1 per cent of all votes counted, Boakai had only secured 38.5 per cent support.
Ahead of Thursday’s results, armed and helmeted police deployed outside the poll body’s headquarters and some of Weah’s supporters were already rejoicing.
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“The Liberian people clearly made their choice… and all together we are very confident in the result of the electoral process,” Weah tweeted before the official results were announced.
Weah topped the first round of voting in October with 38.4 per cent of ballots but failed to win the 50 per cent necessary to avoid a run-off. Boakai came second with 28.8 per cent.
Weah is the only African ever to have won the FIFA’s World Player of the Year and the coveted Ballon d’Or. The 51-year-old starred at top-flight European football clubs – Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan in the 1990s before playing briefly in England for Chelsea and Manchester City later in his career.
“Is it President Weah?” said the New Dawn newspaper on Thursday, referring to a man who has the backing of heavyweights including former warlord Prince Johnson and apparently the covert support of outgoing President Sirleaf.
Her office said it had set up a team “for the proper management and orderly transfer of executive power from one democratically elected President to another.”
