Liberia: Preliminary election results show 3 leading contenders

11 Octobre 2017

Monrovia, Liberia, October 11 (Infosplusgabon) -  Early results from polling stations across the country show a three-horse race involving the ruling party, the main opposition and a surprise first-timer in Liberian politics.

The ruling Unity Party (UP) is trailing the lead opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) while new entrant, Alternative National Congress (ANC), is a distant third.

The results are being broadcast on numerous radio stations by correspondents who are at the various polling places where copies of the results are posted for public viewing.

The National Election Commission (NEC) Chairman, Jerome Korkoya, says the results posted at polling stations are official and will be the source of the final tally of the commission.

However, the final official results are those the NEC will announce at a ceremony following counting of all ballots sent from the field stations for verification and disclosure to the world.

The commission itself is yet to begin announcement of the results as ballot boxes are still trickling in from far and near and are yet to be counted at the NEC headquarters.

But NEC officials told a news conference that the electoral body would begin releasing the official results by Thursday, October 12, and complete the process by October 25 in keeping with schedule.

The winning candidate will need 50 plus one percent (50 1%) of the votes cast.

Over 2.1 million registered voters went to the polls Tuesday, October 10, to elect a president from among 20 candidates, while they also voted to elect 73 members of the lower house of parliament from among nearly 1,000 aspirants.

This is the third democratic presidential election since Liberia returned to peace after 14 years of civil conflict that left some 200,000 persons dead and forced one million others into exile or internal displacement.

It is billed as “historic” because the polls will see the first handover of power from a democratically-elected president to another in at least seven decades.

FIN/INFOSPLUSGABON/ESR/GABON 2017

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