George Weah , Joseph Boakai

Abubakar Hashim

As collation and counting of votes are ongoing in all the 15 counties in Liberia, two counties will decide who becomes the next president. These are Montserrado county, where the capital city, Monrovia, is located and Nimba county. They have always decider who is the President of Africa’s oldest republic.

Montserrado constitutes the largest vote strength of 36.4%, with Nimba, with 12.43%, totalling 48.7%.

Weah won Montserrado in the first round. He has penetrated Nimba through development projects, but more importantly, just a few days to the run-off elections, he had mended the deep cracks with former war lord and a strong vote pillar of Nimba, Prince Johnson. This may pave his chances of getting hold of Nimba, despite Boakai’s running mate, Jeremiah Koung, who hails from Nimba and a threat.

Another decisive factor is the outcome of the 6% of voters, whose ballots were invalidated by NEC in the first round.

The third factor is Bong county, the third in vote pul- out, constituting 9.50%, the three counties totalling 57.20%.

Weah’s running mate and current VP, Jewel Howard-Taylor hails from Bong county.
Boakai, on the other hand, will pull substantial votes, principally from the current wind of “ change”, blowing across African countries, Liberia inclusive. It happened in Nigeria in Peter Obi’s outstanding performances in some states, like Lagos and Abuja. He could also benefit from the rice subsidy removal in the past by President Weah, which did not go down well, as it is the main staple. There was rice riot under Thurbman in the the years past.

However, the main gain of Weah is his personality profile. This, definitely, favours him, particularly among youths and the down trodden. As one Weah fan puts it”… you pull Weah out of his ruling CPC party, it is completely finished…”

The- turn out of the run- off elections was less than the over 75% in the first round. It was mainly due to the two horse race in the run off and the absence of the parliamentary elections that had been concluded in the first ballot.

Liberian economy grew by 4.8% in 2022, mainly driven by gold and iron ore exports by Arcellor Mittall company.

Results will start trickling in, in the next couple of hours.