Liberia’s incumbent president and football legend, George Weah, graciously accepted his loss in the election on Friday.
Opposition leader Joseph Boakai secured a lead of 50.89% of the votes, according to nearly complete returns. Weah congratulated Boakai on his victory, emphasizing the need to prioritize national interest over personal agendas.
Boakai won by a narrow margin of over 28,000 votes. The peaceful elections marked a significant milestone for Liberia since the end of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in 2018.
“Ladies and gentlemen, tonight the CDC (party) has lost the election, but Liberia has won. This is the time for graciousness in defeat, to put national interest above personal interest,” Weah said in a speech on national radio.
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Results published by the electoral commission after tallying the ballots from more than 99 percent of polling stations gave Weah 49.11 percent of the votes cast.
Weah said he had spoken to Boakai “to congratulate him on his victory”.
“The Liberian people have spoken, and we have heard their voice. However, the closeness of the results reveals a deep division within our country,” Weah said in his speech.
Around 2.4 million Liberians were eligible to vote on Tuesday, but no turnout figures have been released.
Dozens of Boakai’s supporters danced in celebration outside one of his party’s offices in the capital Monrovia.
The elections were the first since the United Nations 2018 ended its peacekeeping mission, created after more than 250,000 people died in two civil wars in Liberia between 1989 and 2003.
