International footballer George Weah is touted to emerge the new President of Liberia.
Weah is likely to get more than 50 per cent of the votes cast during the week’ s presidential election.
Weah will be taking over from Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf who has been in the saddle for 12 years if he wins.
The Liberian election was generally acknowledged to be with mimimal hitches by observers.
Weah was believed to have done better than all the other candidates including the vice president to Johnson-Sirleaf.
Liberia’s election results were delayed on Wednesday over hitches at a number of polling stations, with Vice President Joseph Boakai and footballer Weah seen as the front runners to succeed Johnson-Sirleaf.
The National Elections Commission (NEC) is expected to announce the first official results from the presidential and legislative elections on Thursday.
If no candidate wins 50 per cent of the presidential vote, a run-off between the top two contenders will be held on November 7, an outcome analysts say is a near certainty.
Turnout for Liberia’s first democratic transfer of power in seven decades was exceptionally high, the electoral panel has suggested.
It admitted that staff at polling stations had in some cases caused long waits for voters and widespread confusion, and many closed as late as 3am, triggering the delay.
Controversy erupted after some voters were directed to the wrong polling place or were made to stand in hot sun followed by heavy rain for hours, leading the NEC to apologise for the conduct of staff who misdirected voters.
“We have already admitted that our queue controllers at various polling places were not at their best,” NEC Chairman Jerome Korkoya told journalists.
“They were supposed to direct voters to the proper line they were assigned. From all indications in many places they didn’t do that and we take responsibility for that,” he admitted.
Staff training would be reformed for the next election, he added.
One district in northeastern Nimba will also have a re-run after a failure to open all four polling places.
The nation’s 2.18 million registered voters made their choice from a crowded field of 20 presidential candidates — including just one woman — and elected 73 parliamentarians for the lower chamber, the House of Representatives.
Longtime opposition figure Charles Brumskine and upstart former Coca-Cola executive Alexander Cummings are deemed to be close on the heels of Weah and Boakai.
– Parties blame NEC –
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that one of Liberia’s leading political parties called for a halt in announcing the result of Tuesday’s presidential election, citing irregularities in the vote.
The Liberty Party, whose candidate Charles Brumskine was considered a front-runner to take over from Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, said it would consider taking legal action if the National Elections Commission (NEC) did not act on its demands.
The NEC was originally expected to release preliminary results on Thursday, October 12.
“We are calling on NEC to immediately halt further announcements of election results. If NEC does not cooperate with our request, we will take the appropriate legal action,” he said.
Police officers stood guard at National Election Commission headquarters in Monrovia, Liberia on Wednesday, October 11.
Brumskime did not give specific evidence of voter fraud and it was unclear what kind of activity could have altered Tuesday’s vote.
An NEC spokesman told Reuters that it was unaware of the Liberty Party’s complaint and did not say whether the commission believed illegal acts occurred.
Any irregularities would taint the results of an election expected to mark the first democratic transfer of power in over seven decades in a country haunted by a civil war that ended nearly 15 years ago.
Liberia, Africa’s oldest modern republic, was founded by freed U.S. slaves in 1847 but its last democratic power transfer dates back to 1943.
Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first elected female president, won a surprise victory in 2005 following a post-war transition. She was re-elected in 2011 but is barred from seeking another term.