By our Staff Writer
The National Elections Commission (NEC) in Liberia says no candidate has won absolute majority in the first round of elections on October 10 and declares the run off campaign opened between the two top candidates–the main opposition leader George Weah and incumbent Vice President Joseph Boakai.
Twenty presidential candidates competed in the just ended polls to succeed current President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf , who ends her second six-years term of office in mid January.
Announcing the final results in Monrovia on Wednesday, NEC’s Chairman Jrerome Korkoya said the runoff will take place on November 7 between former football star now Senator George Weah of the opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) who got 38.% of the total votes and incumbent Vice President Joseph Boakai of the ruling Unity Party (UP) who comes second with 28.8%.
Chalres Brumskine of the opposition Liberty Party (LP) followed in the third place with 9.6% of the votes, with former warlord and now Senator Prince Johnson of the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR) toming fourth with 8.4%. Alexander Cummings of the Alternative National Congress (ANC) picked up 7.2$, while Benoni Urey of the All Liberian Party (ALP) came next with 1.6%.
Seven of the 20 candidates failed to obtain at least one percent of the vote in the first round.
Liberian law requires that for any presidential candidate to win outright in the first round he/she must get 50% plus one valid vote.
Korkoya said the total number of votes tallied was one million 641,922. Some 2.1 million people registered to vote in this year’s presidential and Legislative elections. Turnout was high, accounting for 75.19% but the number of invalid votes recorded amounted to 88,574, something many political observers blamed on the lack of long term and adequate voter/civic education across the country.