Liberia: Former world top footballer Weah takes early lead in Liberia presidential poll

13 Octobre 2017

Monrovia, Liberia, October 13 (Infosplusgabon) -  The 1995 FIFA World Player of the Year George Weah has taken an early lead in Liberia's 10 October presidential election garnering 44.4 per cent of the votes in preliminary results from 20.25 per cent of valid votes.

The lead is from 32 of 158 polling places, the National Elections Commission (NEC) has announced on Thursday.

The results showed that Weah, 51, who stood on the ticket of Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), has so far gained 3,763 votes from a total of 6,474 valid votes.

Joseph Nyuma Boakai, incumbent vice president and candidate of the ruling Unity Party (UP), is second with 33.1 per cent (2,807 votes).

Alexander B. Cummings of the Alternative National Congress (ANC) is third with 6.9 per cent (584 votes), Charles Walker Brumskine of the Liberty Party (LP) is fourth with 4.5 per cent (381 votes) and Benoni Wilfred Urey of the ALP is fifth with 2.5 per cent (209 votes.

There were 20 candidates and the remaining 15 had less than one per cent of the votes. The winner should have more than 50 per cent of the valid votes cast or there will be a runoff next month.

Jerome G. Korkoya, NEC Chairman, told a press briefing that these were "the only official results" from the poll.

"The Commission asks all other organisations to refrain from announcing anything other than the official results released. Candidates and political parties should also be patient and await the official results and not rush to premature conclusions."

Korkoya said the Commission was committed to the timely release of the results, but this could not be done at the expense of accuracy.

"Please do not report results that are not verified by the Commission. This can lead to problems and expectations that cannot be met. It is important for all to be responsible at this point. This includes the media," he added.

Korkoya also asked any person or party that had a complaint to use the established legal channels, saying "our complaints process will investigate thoroughly any complaints and we ask aggrieved parties to submit evidence to support their claims. We also call on all parties to be responsible in any allegations they make".

FIN/INFOSPLUSGABON/ESD/GABON 2017

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