By our Reporter
The icing has finally been put on the cake.
Liberia’s National Elections Commission (NEC) on Friday evening formally declared football icon and Senator George Manneh Weah winner of the December 26 presidential runoff election, after the final batch of results were released.
NEC Chairman Jerome Korkoya told a news conference that Weah of the main opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) got 732,185 votes, clinching 61.5%, while current Vice President Joseph Boakai of the Unity Party (UP) amounting to 457,579 votes, amounting to 38.5%.
“I do hereby declare the presidential ticket of George Weah and Jewel Howard Taylor as the winner of the December 26 presidential runoff election,” the head of Liberia’s electoral body said giving the authority vested in him by the Liberian constitution and the election laws.
He said there were nearly 1.2 million eligible voters that participated in last Tuesday’s polls that recorded 28,360 invalid votes.
Weah swept all but one of the remaining four counties which completed results were announced Friday—Nimba, Sinoe, Margibi, while Boakai took Lofa.
In total, the former World best and European best footballer of the year won 14 of Liberia’s 15 counties.
Meanwhile, Chairman Korkoya has commended outgoing President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for her government’s support to NEC.
He also praised her Finance Minister Boima Kamara who he described as “one of the finest public servants in Liberia.”
Then came praised for the country’s Police Inspector General Gregory Coleman and international partners including UNMIL, the US, EU Japan among others.
The NEC Chairman singled out the ECOWAS Special Representative in Liberia, Ambassador Tunde Ajisomo, who he said made it possible for the arrival of the ECOWAS Technical Team that assisted the Commission in cleaning up the Final Registration Roll (FRR) before the conduct of the December 26 runoff.