He that endures to the end

Liberians go to runoff presidential election on November 7, 2017 in the quest to choose a president that will succeed Nobel Laureate President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is completing two six-year terms in office.

The National Elections Commission announced the runoff after all 20 candidates who contested in the first round of poll conducted on 10 October across the failed to obtain 50 percent plus one of the total votes cast to be declared winner as the Constitution of Liberia requires.

However, the Coalition of Democratic Change (CDC) of former soccer legend George Manneh Weah and the ruling Unity Party of Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai who received 38 percent and 29 percent respectively of the total votes, are going for the runoff in an effort to ensure a democratic transition of political power from one administration to another, the first in more than 70 years.

Campaign for the runoff had kicked off since last week Thursday, 19 October. Talks and negotiations are being held with parties and political leaders who did not make it to the runoff to decide side to support come 7 November. It is incumbent upon political leaders to educate their followers that the search for a president to lead this country for the coming six years has not ended. Though Party A or candidate B did not perform well or win the poll, they should lend support to any one of the two candidates in the runoff.

We call on Liberian electorate nationwide to endure to the end by getting ready for the runoff election. It is not over yet until it is completely over. We must all get in involved as Liberians.  If your candidate or political party did poorly and therefore failed to be in the runoff, it should not discourage any partisan or electorate to sit on the fence and watch. Rather, they should stay engage until we democratically choose a leader at the ballot box. No Liberian registered voter should be left out of this very important historic decision-making for our country.

Whether it is Senator George Weah of the CDC or Vice President Boakai of the UP, one of them must get elected on 7 November and subsequently inaugurated in January 2018. In this race, no one party can do it alone. There is need for collaboration and we must collaborate. The Liberty Party (LP), Alternative National Congress (ANC) All Liberian Party (ALP) or the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR) etc, must support either of the two candidates in the runoff in determining a leader for our country. No electorate should back off from the process.