Liberians hail victory of ex-football star Weah in landmark vote

Liberians revelled Friday in former football star George Weah’s presidential victory, in the country’s first democratic transfer of power in seven decades scarred by civil wars, political assassinations and an Ebola crisis.

Weah, idolised in Liberia as “Mister George”, is set to replace Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who took over in 2006 at the helm of the west African state founded by freed US slaves.

The 51-year-old starred at top-flight European clubs Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan in the 1990s, before briefly playing for Chelsea and Manchester City toward the end of his career.

Weah, who entered politics after retiring from football in 2002, easily beat his rival Vice President Joseph Boakai in Thursday’s run-off vote.

With almost all ballots counted, National Election Commission (NEC) President Jerome Korkoya said final results would be released on Friday. But Weah wasted no time in acknowledging his win.

“My fellow Liberians, I deeply feel the emotion of all the nation. I measure the importance and the responsibility of the immense task which I embrace today. Change is on,” he posted on Twitter late on Thursday.

Hundreds of his supporters took to the streets of the capital Monrovia, singing, dancing and embracing each other as news of his victory spread.

“I’ve never been so happy in all my life. We were in opposition for 12 years. We’re going to make history, like the children of South Africa did,” said Josephine Davies, vice president of the youth wing of Weah’s Congress for Democratic Change.

French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the ex-star striker’s victory in a tweet on Friday. “Congratulations to Mister George for this election! Great moment for Liberia!”

The NEC said Weah won 61.5 percent of the run-off vote, which was delayed several weeks after a legal challenge from Boakai, following October’s first round.

It said that with 98.1 percent of all votes counted, Boakai had only secured 38.5 percent support.

Ahead of Thursday’s result announcement, armed and helmeted police deployed outside the poll body’s headquarters as Weah supporters gathered and began rejoicing.

Sirleaf’s office said it had set up a team “for the proper management and orderly transfer of executive power from one democratically elected president to another”, adding that it included several ministers.

Tumultuous history
The tumultuous events of the past 70 years in Liberia, where an estimated 250,000 people died during back-to-back civil wars between 1989-2003, have prevented a democratic handover from taking place since 1944.

Sirleaf’s predecessor Charles Taylor fled the country in 2003, hoping to avoid prosecution for funding rebel groups in neighbouring Sierra Leone. Two presidents who served prior to Taylor were assassinated.

The UN and regional bloc ECOWAS hailed the peaceful nature of the vote, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres praising “the government, political parties and the people of Liberia for the orderly poll”, which the EU said “generally respected constitutional rules”.

The Sirleaf administration, elected in 2005, guided the nation out of the ruins of war and through the horrors of the 2014-16 Ebola crisis, but is accused of failing to combat poverty and corruption.

Weah, the only African ever to have won both FIFA’s World Player of the Year and the coveted Ballon D’Or, missed out on the presidency in a 2005 bid.

He was similarly frustrated when he ran for vice-president in 2011, but his CDC party repeatedly urged its young and exuberant supporters to keep calm.

Weah’s latest campaign was not without controversy, however.

He has drawn some criticism for picking Jewel Howard-Taylor, the powerful ex-wife of Charles Taylor, as his vice-president.