IPNEWS: The Chairperson of Liberia’s National Elections Commission (NEC) Tuesday, October 22, formally announced a runoff election between President/Candidate George Manneh Weah and former Vice President/Candidate Joseph Nyuma Boakai. The runoff, NEC Chairperson Davidetta Browne Lansanah says, will be held on the second Tuesday, November 14, 2023. She immediately declared campaign activities for the runoff open.
After Madam Lansanah had announced the final results of the October 10, 2023 Presidential and Legislative Election, she said the Constitution says that if none of those taking part in a national presidential election, got 50 percent+1, then the first two with the highest numbers of votes will square off in a runoff in order to determine the next president.
Twenty individuals, including 19 men and a woman, had wrestled for Liberians’ votes to be their next leader. Weah who is the incumbent, according to the NEC, got 804,087, constituting 43.83%; while Boakai obtained 796,961, constituting 43.44%. Even though Weah got 7,126 votes more than his rival, he still didn’t qualify to be declared the next president of Liberia. The percentage margin between both men is 0.39.
The NEC Chairperson based her reliance on Article 83B of the Liberian Constitution: “All elections of public officers shall be determined by an absolute majority of the votes cast. If no candidate obtains an absolute majority in the first ballot, a second ballot shall be conducted on the second Tuesday following. The two candidates who received the greatest numbers of votes on the first ballot shall be designated to participate in the runoff election.”
According to the NEC, of the 2,471,617 Liberians, who had registered to vote in the elections, 1,949,155 (78.86%) participated.
“Election Day, 10 October 2023, was characterized by a record high turnout of 1,949,155 voters, which constitutes 78.86 percent of the 2,471,617 total registered voters. This huge turnout is unprecedented in Liberia’s modern democratic election history and it is due, in part, to the Commission’s successful transition from the Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) system of voter registration to the use of biometric technology for the registration of voters, which produced an excellent Final Registration Roll for the 10 October Elections,” Madam Lansanah said.
“The Commission notes that these elections attracted much attention from some 10,000 national, regional, and international long-term and short-term observers that were accredited by the Commission to observe the elections. These observers were deployed across the 15 counties of Liberia and they took stock of how the NEC implemented international standards and electoral best practices in conducting the elections in Liberia.”
