Preliminary results released on Monday from Liberia’s vote last week maintained a lead for football hero George Weah but underscored the need for a run-off election for the presidency of the post-war elected government.
With more than 90% of 3 070 polling stations reporting, Weah was in front with 28,9%, compared with the 19,7% earned by his nearest rival, former World Bank economist Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, in her bid to become Africa’s first elected female president.
National Electoral Commission chairperson Frances Johnson Morris expressed confidence on Monday that the final tallies would be calculated before the end of the week, for results to be certified by October 26.
Behind the two front-runners were a sheaf of businessmen lawyers, including Winston Tubman, a formal United Nations special envoy to Somalia and the nephew of long-running president William Tubman who has performed beyond national expectations, taking fourth with 9,6%.
Diaspora favourite Charles Brumskine was in third with 13,4% and Ivy League graduate Varney Sherman, seen as the proxy for the current transitional government, trailed in fifth with 8%.
That 20% of votes are divided among the rest of the 22 candidates makes it likely that alliances will be formed in the weeks before the November 8 run-off date, a tenuous prospect in a country notorious for political infighting and corruption, a West African official said.
”What we have is a classic Liberian scenario of backroom deals, so even if the front-runners want to leave corruption behind, they will already be starting at a disadvantage, making deals with the devil before they are even inaugurated,” the official said.
”The front-runners need to be careful of their alliances, because there is also no guarantee that any one group of supporters will follow their candidate into the alliance anyhow.”
The presidential and legislative elections aimed to close a chapter of lawlessness and corruption that has left tens of thousands of Liberians dead and robbed the country of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
Liberia will also elect a legislature with 64 seats, based on the United States congressional model. — Sapa-AFP