Liberia's ruling party seeks injunction to halt December 26 run-off

<p>Liberia’s ruling Unity Party has gone to court seeking an injunction on a presidential run-off vote slated for December 26, 2017.</p> <p>A Reuters journalists says the petition lodged at the Supreme Court was issued by current vice president Joseph Boakai, who came second in the main polls.</p> <p>The petition is challenging the credibility of the elections body, the Liberia National Electoral Commission, <span class="caps">NEC</span>, to conduct the December 26 process. It is not known when the petition will be due for hearing by the court.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This opportunity comes only once in 6 years… Celebrate democracy by casting your ballot on December 26…Let's lead Liberia to a better future! <a href="https://t.co/t5vtpuqWa5">pic.twitter.com/t5vtpuqWa5</a></p>— <span class="caps">NEC</span> Liberia (@NECLiberia) <a href="https://twitter.com/NECLiberia/status/941256333952774145?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <p>Boakai is expected to enter the run-off with former football star, George Weah, who came tops in the first round but failed to secure the 50% plus of popular votes.</p> <p>The Supreme Court in a majority decision recently threw out a petition lodged by the opposition Liberty party, the judges said evidence presented was not sufficient to warrant a cancellation of the entire first round.</p> <p>They, however, tasked the <span class="caps">NEC</span> to undertake key reforms ahead of the run-off. The body announced the new date its said after taking into account directives of the judges.</p> <p>Winner of the elections will replace Africa’s first democratically elected female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who has been president of the West African country since 2006.</p>