Liberians will be voting on Tuesday in important elections for president and parliament. These are the first elections since 2018 when a UN mission left the country after helping to maintain peace for over ten years. Liberia has been deeply affected by two very destructive civil wars.
In addition to the 14-year long civil war, which resulted in the loss of 250,000 lives before ending in 2003, Liberia has also faced other major health crises. These include the Covid pandemic and a severe Ebola outbreak in 2014, which caused the death of over 4,000 people.
The current President George Weah, who used to be a famous football player, wants to be elected again for another six years. His first term was troubled by corruption and claims of poor leadership.
The World Bank says that there is a lot of poverty in Liberia. They estimate that half of the people in the country live on less than $2 per day.
Over 60% of the population in Liberia is under 25 years old. However, many young people in the country are unemployed, including some who were child soldiers during the civil war.
Nineteen people are running against Weah, who is in the Coalition for Democratic Change party. But he will have a tough competition with Joseph Boakai from the Unity Party.
There were disagreements and arguments between the supporters of the two political parties before the elections, according to Liberia’s police on Facebook. The country’s voting committee said that many people died and things were destroyed.
According to a representative from the UN Human Rights Office in Liberia named Seif Magango, there were some conflicts where two individuals lost their lives while 20 others got hurt.
Weah, who is the only African to have won football’s top award called Ballon d’Or, won more than 60% of the votes against Boakai in a second round of elections in 2017.
Both Weah, who is 57 years old, and Boakai, who will be 79 years old next month, did not get more than 50% of the votes in the first round of voting.
Boakai accepted that he lost after he tried to go to court and it didn’t work out.
Boakai said to CNN that his young followers really want things to be different now.
Liberians are seeking something different or new. The young people on the street are admitting that they voted for Weah in 2017 but now realize it was a mistake. They are asking for forgiveness and expressing their desire to fix the mistake. This is what they are saying wherever I go. ”
“This time, Weah knows that he is not as popular as before and he doesn’t have a chance in this election,” Boakai said.
Approximately 24 million Liberians, mostly young individuals, have signed up to vote in the election. Experts believe that the election is primarily between Weah and Boakai, with no clear third candidate in the competition.
“Joel Cholo Brooks, the publisher of Global News Network Liberia, said that many believe Boakai will become the next president. They think Boakai will save Liberians from President Weah, who they say has not done a good job in his six years as president. ”
However, Weah’s supporters believe that he should be voted for again in order to finish all the projects he has started but not yet completed.
Before the elections, Weah spoke up for his administration’s achievements. He told his supporters at a rally that his record of progress during his first six years as president is better than that of previous leaders, according to a statement from the president.
He praised the progress made in improving infrastructure and mentioned that his government has made public university education free in Liberia.
Weah said that he is better than his opponents at a different meeting last month. “I am a person who creates software and applications, and that’s why I am working to improve the country,” he said while asking for people to vote for him.
Weah was criticized last year for spending almost two months in another country. He went to Qatar to watch his son, who is American, play in the FIFA World Cup for the United States.
Liberia’s finance minister, Samuel Tweah, said that the president had the right to receive $2,000 each day for his trip. However, he did not mention how much the entire 48-day tour by President Weah cost. The tour is said to be the longest one taken by a Liberian leader in recent years, according to local media.
“Since the beginning, they’ve been a dishonest government and everything they do is for their own benefit,” accused Boakai, Weah’s main competitor. Boakai also explained to CNN that if he is elected, he intends to reduce government spending and address the mishandling of limited public funds.
Weah’s campaign manager, Eugene Nagbe, told CNN that President Weah has been working hard to get rid of corruption in Liberia’s institutions.
“The president has formed the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission and has given it the authority to independently punish those who are guilty of corruption,” Nagbe explained.
Some experts don’t believe that Weah has done enough to get rid of the corruption in his government.
Brooks said that the president didn’t do a good job in stopping corruption. He also mentioned that a lot of the people who work for him and were accused of being corrupt have not been punished yet.
Last year, three people who were close friends of Weah, including his assistant, Nathaniel McGill, were punished by the US because the US believed they were involved in ongoing corruption in Liberia.
McGill and Twehway, who held important positions in Liberia, were accused by the US Treasury Department of accepting money illegally, taking away government money, and changing government agreements for their own benefit.
The three people quit their jobs but they did not face any legal consequences, even though people wanted them to be charged.
Brooks said that the president allowed two people who were punished by the US government for lots of stealing to run for the Liberian parliament.
McGill and Twehway were chosen by Weah’s CDC party to be on the ballot for the country’s senate.
Weah’s campaign manager told CNN that there is no law in Liberia that stops them from running for office. He also said that the government is waiting for evidence from the United States to start prosecutions.
Liberia’s Corruption Perception Index score has dropped a lot since Weah became the president in 2018. It has fallen by 22 points in just five years and is now at 142. This list, created by Transparency International, ranks 180 countries based on how much corruption is believed to exist in their government.
Nagbe said that people think corruption is a big problem, and although our ranking has gone down, the president is working hard to fight it.
Oscar Bloh, who leads the biggest election observing group in Liberia called ECC, said to CNN that this election is not like the ones before.
This election is very important compared to the ones before. This is the first time we have switched from using a manual system to a biometric voter registration system,” he said.
This is the first time that elections will happen in Liberia without the UN mission providing outside security. So Liberia’s security agencies will be responsible for security.
The UNMIL was a group of people who helped make Liberia a more peaceful and stable place. They finished their job in 2018 and left.
Bloh was also concerned that the training for poll officials started just a few days before the elections.
A person who speaks for the electoral commission, Henry Flomo, said to CNN, “Everything is on time,” as the law dictates.
The Supreme Court said that putting up the voter roll should happen at least two days before the election. Flomo mentioned this, but he did not give a reason for the election officials being trained late.
The voting will start at 8:00 in the morning. The time right now is Tuesday and we will be closing at 6:00 p. mAccording to the law, the election officials have to announce who won within two weeks after the voting is over.
In order to become president, a candidate needs to get more than half of all the votes. If no candidate gets more than half of the votes in the first round, there will be another election two weeks later with the top candidates.
Bloh predicts that there will probably be a runoff this time.
“He told CNN that it is unlikely for any of the candidates to win completely in the first round. ”