Former Vice President Joseph Boakai looks set to become Liberia’s new president.
Boakai went head-to-head with the incumbent George Weah in the presidential run-off and with almost all the votes counted; the opposition candidate holds an unassailable lead of 28,000 votes.
According to the electoral commission, Mr Boakai, a 78-year-old political veteran had 50.89% of the votes, while President Weah had 49.11%.
The run-off between Mr Boakai and Mr Weah was triggered after neither candidate got more than 50% of the vote in last month’s first round. There were 18 other candidates.
In that vote, the president got the largest share and was just 7,000 votes ahead of Mr Boakai.
Meanwhile Liberian President George Weah has called his challenger in the presidential race, Joseph Boakai, to congratulate him on his victory.
In an address to the nation he said “the Liberian people have spoken and we have heard their voice”.
A former football star, President Weah has been in power since 2018. He will step down in January.
Born in November 1944 Liberia’s incoming president Joseph Boakai grew up in the remote village of Worsonga, in Liberia’s northernmost county, Lofa.
Mr Boakai studied at a school in the neighbouring country of Sierra Leone and graduated from the College of West Africa, in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia.
He then went on to complete a business administration degree at the University of Liberia.
In the 1980s Mr Boakai served as Liberia’s agriculture minister under President Samuel Doe, who was violently murdered in 1990.
After losing the 2017 election, Mr Boakai was determined to try again.
In the first round of this election, neither Mr Boakai nor Mr Weah secured the more than 50% required for victory, so they faced off in a second round.
He is known by critics as “Sleepy Joe” after reports of him falling asleep at official events, but Mr Boakai has promised to restore hope in Liberia and prevent the country “from falling over the cliff”.
Having served for 12 years as vice-president under Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first elected female African head of state, he is familiar with running a country.
Mr Boakai will officially become president in January 2024.
