IPNEWS: Early preliminary results announced so far from Liberia’s Runoff Election between incumbent President George Manneh Weah and former Vice President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, have put the opposition candidate in a narrow lead.
According to Liberia’s National Elections Commission (NEC), of 1,315 polling places counted and tallied so far, the former Vice President has managed to obtain 193,041 constituting 50.71%, while the incumbent President, George Manneh Weah, got 187,615 constituting 49.29%. This is a narrow lead of 1.42%. There are still 4,575 polling places to be announced in the coming days. This is the first day of announcing preliminary results from the Runoff Election, which was held on November 14, 2023.
Of that number of polling places counted so far, the total votes cast in those places were 386,076. Of this number, 380,656 were valid votes, while 5,420 cast invalid votes.
Out of Liberia’s 15 political subdivisions and from the number of polling places announced so far, Boakai managed to get his lead in some of the populated counties, including Lofa (12,835 votes, constituting 67.66%); Montserrado (96,789 votes, constituting 53%); Nimba (25,360 votes, constituting 74.82%); Gbarpolu (5,610 votes, constituting 55.45%), etc.
One region that the President seems to be winning bigly is the Southeastern Region, which contains five counties but having very small voting population and whose total numbers can’t make any significant difference when for example Nimba alone decides to give more than 90 percent of its votes to the opposition.
The Runoff Election came about when none of the 20 individuals, who had vied for the Presidency could not obtain 50 percent plus one vote as required by Liberia’s Constitution.
After Madam Davidetta Browne Lansanah had announced the final results of the first round of the elections, which was held on October 10, 2023, 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 had obtained 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. It is yet unclear how many Liberians voted in the Runoff Election.
