Liberia President George Weah yesterday conceded election defeat to opposition leader Joseph Boakai, just hours after polls showed Boakai was ahead with nearly all the votes counted, spokespeople for both candidates told Reuters.
Weah “has called Mr. Boakai to congratulate him,” presidential press secretary Solo Kehgbeh told Reuters. “This is the beauty of democracy.”
Boakai spokesman Amara Konneh confirmed the call.
Boakai, 78, a former vice president who lost to Weah in the 2017 election, led with 50.89 per cent of the vote over Weah’s 49.11pc, according to results from 99.6pc of polling stations, the country’s elections commission said on Friday.
Final results are expected in the coming days.
Weah, a former international soccer star, won the 2017 election after his promise to fight poverty and generate infrastructure development. It was the first democratic transfer of power in the West African nation since the end of the country’s back-to-back civil wars between 1989 and 2003 that killed some 250,000 people.
But the 57-year-old president has been accused of not living up to key campaign promises that he would fight corruption and ensure justice for victims of conflict.
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