Liberia’s electoral commission chief Jerome Korkoya has announced the date of a presidential run-off poll for December 26 this year.
Last week, the Liberia Supreme Court dismissed calls for a re-run of the October 10 polls and instead ordered the electoral commission to hold the run-off on condition that the commission conducted critical reforms.
The run-off will see ex-football star George Weah face the country’s Vice-President Joseph Boakai of the ruling party. Weah led the first round of the presidential election with 38.4% against Boakai’s 28.8%. The law requires that a president gets at least half of the votes cast to win.
Liberia’s electoral commission was ordered to fully comply with the electoral management laws in conducting the run-off vote and also desist from having any of its officials speak on any matter that may affect the parties to the run-off.
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Parties welcome runoff date
Unity Party spokesman Wilmot Paye, in his initial response to the announcement yesterday, said “the UP doesn’t have any qualms with NEC except that the Supreme court’s mandate cannot be compromised. All that must be done will be done before the run-off, period!
But when pressed by our reporter to explain what he meant by the UP has no qualms with NEC, Mr Paye quickly retorted, “it is not our prerogative to set dates for elections. We are particular about the process-the steps NEC will take towards the elections. If we are dissatisfied, we go back to the Supreme Court he emphasized. The party is meanwhile expected to have a strategy meeting on the runoff election today.
For its part, The Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) has also indicated that it has no problem with the date set by the NEC for the runoff. The coalition chairman, Nathaniel McGill, welcomed the pronouncement of runoff date and noted that his party is prepared for the election.
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“We thank our fellow Liberians that even though there are difficult times, they have maintained their resilience and steadfastness. We call on them to use Christmas Day as a day of reflection for the following day, which is set for the runoff election,†McGill said.
Meanwhile, Chairman Korkoya has declared open the campaign for the runoff election. He announced that the two political parties are at liberty to commence their campaign across the country as of the time he was addressing the press yesterday. The campaign for the runoff will end at 11:59 p.m. on December 24.
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primenewsghana.com/Liberia News