The election of Liberia’s veteran politician Joseph Boakai as the West African country’s President over the outgoing George Weah was officially announced on Monday. The continent commended Weah for his graceful acceptance of defeat.
Boakai, 78, will lead this English-speaking nation with about five million people—among the world’s poorest—for six years.
A car struck a gathering of the elected president’s supporters on Monday night, just hours after it was announced that he had won. At least ten people were hurt, with the police reporting injuries and the Unity Party, Boakai’s political party, reporting deaths.
After tallying all of the votes, Davidetta Browne Lansanah, president of the Electoral Commission (NEC), declared to the media on Monday that Boakai had won with 50.64% of the vote, compared to Weah’s 49.36%.
An experienced politician, Boakai served as Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s vice president from 2006 to 2018, the continent’s first female head of state. He has held a variety of positions in both the public and private sectors.
Out of just over 1.6 million voters, he leads Weah by a mere 20,567 votes.
The orderly and peaceful voting process was one of the election’s difficulties. In addition to the acknowledgement of the outcomes, democracy in West Africa has suffered during last few years due to coups d’état in nations like Guinea, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
This was the first election that was held in Liberia without the assistance of the UN mission, which was established in 2003 and departed in 2018 to ensure peace following civil wars.
