2023 Liberia Election: Incumbent President Weah, former Vice President Boakai set to battle in Run Off

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson The 2023 Liberia presidential election will see incumbent President George Manneh "Upon" Weah, who is running as the presidential candidate for the Coalition for Change (CDC), and former Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai, representing the Unity Party (UP), facing each other in a run-off election. Both candidates emerged as the top two contenders in the general election held on October 10, 2023, but neither secured the required 50% plus one vote threshold to be declared the outright winner. The final results of the October 10 polls that was announced on Tuesday evening by Mrs. Davidetta Browne Lansanah, Chairperson of NEC Liberia indicated that the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) received the highest number of votes, with 804,087 votes (43.83%), followed closely by the Unity Party (UP) with 796,961 votes (43.44%). However, since neither candidate obtained the required 50% plus one vote to win outright, a run-off election was declared. During the election, there were reports of disruptions in the tallying process and allegations of electoral malpractices by some temporary staff. Several individuals were arrested in connection with these incidents, and their names were quarantined in the NEC database to prevent them from serving in future elections. According to the Liberia National Elections Commission (NEC), the election-day witnessed a record high voter turnout, with 1,949,155 voters (78.86% of the total registered voters) participating in the election. This turnout was attributed, in part, to the successful transition from the Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) system to the use of biometric technology for voter registration. NEC Liberia also noted that the election did receive significant attention from both national and international observers, with approximately 10,000 observers accredited by the NEC to monitor the election process across Liberia's 15 counties. She highlighted some of the challenges that were thoroughly updated on during the commission’s post-election daily press briefings, stressing that despite some challenges, such as disruptions in the counting process and instances of electoral malpractices by temporary staff, they (NEC Liberia) managed to complete the counting, tallying, and collation of results from the re-run on October 20 of three elections at two affected polling centers in Beo Lontou, Nimba county #4 were counting process were disrupted, individuals made away with ballot boxes, damaging their contents in the process on October 10. As none of the 20 presidential candidates obtained the required 50% plus one of the valid votes cast, the run-off election declared by NEC is between George Manneh "Upon" Weah and Joseph Nyumah Boakai. The run-off election is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, November 14, 2023, just two days after the deadline for campaigning, which is set to end on November 12, 2023. The winner of the run-off election will determine the next president of Liberia.