NEC declares run-off today

The board of commissioners of the National Elections Commission (NEC) will today, Thursday, 19 October announce final results of the October 10, 2017 Presidential and Representatives’ Elections, which is expected to be followed by the pronouncement of official political campaign for a runoff between Senator George Weah of the Coalition for Democratic Change and Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai of the ruling Unity Party.

The NEC’s Press and Public Affairs Director, Henry B. Flomo, discloses to this paper via mobile phone Wednesday, 18 October that NEC Chairman Cllr. Jerome George Korkoya will release the names of winners of the 73 electoral districts throughout the country.

Mr. Flomo explains that the press conference will also witness the declaration of the commencement of political campaign for the expected 8 November run-off presidential election that is likely between the governing UP and the CDC, forerunners from Tuesday’s polls.

The two contenders obtained the two highest percentages far ahead of 18 other presidential candidates, most of whom fell below one percent after the counting of 95 percent of the votes cast on 10 October.

According to the NEC, Mr. Weah’s CDC which is a conglomeration of the Congress for Democratic Change, the National Patriotic Party and the Liberian People’s Democratic Party obtains 572, 374 (39.0 percent), while Mr. Boakai’s UP has 427,544 (29.1 percent) of the total votes cast.

The two leading parties are followed by opposition Liberty Party (LP) of Cllr. Charles Walker Brumskine who secures 144,353 (9.8 percent); opposition Alternative National Congress (ANC) of Alexander B. Cummings, with 104,125 ( 7.1 percent) and Nimba County Senator Prince Johnson’s Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR), with 102,561 (7.0 percent) of the votes.

Chairman Jerome Korkoya discloses that the total valid votes from the polls are 1,466,748, while invalid vote is put at 84,057. The votes cast for the presidency is 1,550,805.

By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor–Edited by Winston W. Parley