Election: Presidential camps offer duelling predictions

Former soccer star George Weah’s camp said on Wednesday he was set to win Liberia’s presidential election run-off against Vice President Joseph Boakai but Boakai’s camp said the contest was still too close to call ahead of the first official results. Liberian election officials began collating the votes from Liberia’s 15 counties on Wednesday and […]

Former soccer star George Weah’s camp said on Wednesday he was set to win Liberia’s presidential election run-off against Vice President Joseph Boakai but Boakai’s camp said the contest was still too close to call ahead of the first official results.

Liberian election officials began collating the votes from Liberia’s 15 counties on Wednesday and planned to announce preliminary results in the afternoon, with final results due on Thursday. 

Unofficial partial results announced on local radio stations all showed Weah in the lead. 

A senior Weah adviser, Morluba Morlu, told Reuters he expected Weah to win with about 70 percent of the vote based on precinct-level vote tallies he said were trickling in from across the country after Tuesday’s vote. 

Boakai spokesman Robert Kpadeh, however, predicted a close race. 

“The numbers give us a good feeling,” he told Reuters. “From now to tomorrow morning, we should have bigger numbers from our strongholds. We are still optimistic that the numbers can favour us.”