President George Weah's party accuses opposition of rigging Liberian election

ABUJA, Nigeria

Liberia’s ruling party alleged that the opposition party rigged last week’s presidential run-off election.

President George Weah's party, the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), said it has evidence the former footballer was cheated out of the hotly contested Nov. 14 poll.

"We have empirical evidences that the elections were stolen," CDC Secretary-General, Jefferson Koijee said at a news conference in the nation’s capital, Monrovia.

Joseph Boakai from the Unity Party defeated Weah by more than 20,000 votes in the run-off.

A run-off was declared after Weah and Boakai could not secure 50% of the vote in an Oct. 10 presidential election, as required by the electoral law.

Both candidates were neck-and-neck in the election rated as free and fair by observers including the European Union and the Economic Community of West African States bloc.

Weah has already conceded defeat, promising not to challenge the results in court for the stability of the country.

Liberia has been relatively stable after a decade of civil war by rebel groups which ended in 2003.