Monitors commend Liberia over organisation of presidential run-off vote

Election monitors from the National Democratic Institute (NDI) said the Liberian run-off elections on Tuesday (December 26) were better organised than in the first round.

Liberia went to the polls on Tuesday for a presidential election that voters hope will mark the country’s first democratic transfer of power in over seven decades, despite it being tarnished by allegations of fraud.

Former world footballer of the year George Weah is squaring up against vice president Joseph Boakai, with both men promising a break with a heritage of poverty and corruption in a country where most citizens have no reliable electricity or clean drinking water.

They are bidding to succeed Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in a run-off vote delayed for over a month after Boakai and third-placed Charles Brumskine of the Liberty Party alleged widespread fraud in October’s first-round vote, a challenge that the Supreme Court rejected this month.

Reuters