Weah-Boakai face-off imminent

With nearly 93 percent of the votes cast in the October 10th Presidential and Representatives elections counted and subsequently announced by the National Elections Commission with no clear winner, it’s almost certain that the governing Unity Party of Vice President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and the Coalition for Democratic Change led by Montserrado County Senator George Manneh Weah would face a runoff in November.

Though final results of the polls are expected this Friday, with just seven percent of the ballots yet to be counted, the Coalition for Democratic Change is enjoying a comfortable lead of 39 percent of the total votes cast with the Unity Party trailing with 29.7 percent.

According to the NEC, with results from 5,151 of the 5,390 or 96.5 percent of the polling places reported as of 15 October 2017 2:00pm, the CDC which is a conglomeration of the Congress for Democratic Change, the National Patriotic Party and the Liberian People Democratic Party obtains 572, 374 or 39.2 percent of the total votes cast, while the Unity Party has 427,544 or 29.1 percent of the total votes cast, followed by the Liberty Party of Cllr. Charles Walker Brumskine, 144,353 or 9.8 percent; the Alternative National Congress of Alexander B. Cummings, 104,125 or 7.1 percent and Nimba County Senator Prince Johnson of the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction, 102,561or 7.0 percent of the votes .

NEC Chairman Cllr. Jerome Korkoya discloses that the total valid votes from the polls is 1,466,748 (100.0%) while invalid votes is put at * 84,057 and the total votes cast for the presidency is 1,550,805.

With these numbering it is clear that Liberians should be gearing up for runoff if they are determined to have a new President come January, 2018.

The data released by the National Elections Commission for these elections for voters from Tuesday’s polls stand at 2,183,629.
The electoral house says of this number, 986,190 or 52 percent are males while 917,039 or 48 percent are females.

According to the records, registrants per county include Bomi County, 61,171; Bong County, 208,150; Gbapolu County, 48,669; Grand Bassa County, 145,798; Grand Cape Mount County, 65,800, and Grand Gedeh County, 63,495.
Others include Grand Kru, 35,506; Lofa County, 167, 555; Margibi County, 154,328; Maryland County, 57,344; Montserrado County, 777,503; Nimba County, 279, 572; River Gee, 35,240; Rivercess , 5,600; and Sinoe County, 47,952, respectively.

By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor-Editing by Jonathan Browne