Provisional results from this week’s runoff election showed that opposition party candidate Joseph Boakai was leading incumbent President George Weah by just over one percentage point, thus Weah conceded on Friday.
Officials said that Boakai had 50.89 percent of the vote versus Weah’s 49.11 percent after 99.58 percent of the votes had been counted during Tuesday’s election.
When compared to the election six years prior, in which Weah comfortably defeated Boakai in the second round, the results were a remarkable reversal.
There have been mounting fears about the deterioration of democracy in West Africa, and Weah’s surrender speech came before official results were announced.
Weah stated his “utmost respect” for “the democracy process that has defined our nation.”
“We have heard the voice of the Liberian people.
Accept the outcome of the elections as I have done. Our time will come again in 2029, Weah declared in an address to the nation, adding that Boakai “is in a lead that we cannot surpass.”
It is worth noting that this year alone has witnessed a military coup in Gabon, following a presidential election, adding to the string of coups that have rocked the West African area in recent years.
The 57-year-old former soccer player Weah won the election in 2017 on the back of a platform that promised to combat poverty and spur infrastructural development.
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