Opposition cries foul as Liberia releases poll result

By Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh

MONROVIA, Liberia

The National Election Commission on Thursday released the final result of the Oct. 10 polls, clearing former football star George Weah and the ruling Unity Party Vice President, Joseph Boakai, for a runoff election in November.

The results come amidst cries of election foul from three leading opposition parties. The commission chairman, however, did not mention a word on the concerns expressed by opposition Liberty Party, the Alternative National Congress and the All Liberian about alleged irregularities that marred the voting process on Oct.10, 2017.

According to the constitution, a presidential candidate is declared a winner if he or she obtains at least 50 percent of the overall vote cast plus one; however, none of the 20 candidates in the recently-concluded election was able to meet that condition.

Commission Chairman Jerome Korkoyah said Weah obtained 596,037 (or 38.4 percent) votes while Boakai bagged 446,716 (or 28.8 percent) votes of the total 1,641,922 (or 95.19 percent) votes polled.

“As you have heard, there is no single candidate that took 50 percent plus one of the overall votes; according to the constitution there should be a runoff between the top two candidates; we, therefore, declare that a runoff election that will be held on Nov. 7, 2017 between Mr. George Weah of the CDC and Joseph Boakai of the Unity Party.

“Officially, campaign for the Nov. 7 runoff is hereby declared opened and closes on Sunday midnight on Nov. 5, 2017,” Korkoya said Thursday.

Long before the announcement of the final result, Boakai and Weah of the main Opposition Coalition for Democratic Change have been mercilessly lobbying to gain support of other major opposition parties to join their efforts in the runoff of the election.

While Weah and Boakai concentrate on planning for the second round of the election process in November, Liberty Party’s Standard Bearer Charles Brumskine -- a third time presidential candidate -- is calling for a rerun of the Oct. 10 election.

Brumskine has been crying foul since the start of the announcement of the election result, noting that he had been robbed of his votes in the recent polls that had been allegedly marred by irregularities.

Alexander Cummings of the Alternative National Congress (ANC) and former Charles Taylor ally Benoni Urey have in recent days also joined Brumskine, crying foul while at the same time calling on the election body to look into their concerns or otherwise take court action against the election commission.

“The Liberty party is a law-abiding party, that’s the reason why we will seek redress through the court if our concerns are not addressed,” Brumskine said at a recent news conference.

Benoni Urey of the All Liberian Party and a former government official of former President Charles Taylor of the NPP may likely give support to Weah whose vice Jewel Howard Taylor is the former wife of Taylor.