Liberia’s National Elections Commission has begun finalising the results of The country’s just concluded presidential and legislative polls held on Tuesday, October 10. Boxes carrying ballot papers have been taken to the NEC’s Data Centre, where officials will tally the results electronically.
The presidential elections, in which 20 candidates vied for the presidential seat, is the first in the country’s history to use Biometric Voter Registration. It is also the first election without the presence of the UN Mission (UNMIL) which exited early 2018.
Most significantly, the elections mark the first time the country’s young adults born after the Civil War voted. Expectations are high that whoever wins would be a genuine representation of the electoral of Liberians.
Over 2.4 million Liberians registered to vote in the elections. Out of the 20 candidates who contested for the presidential seat, one main challenger stood out in the race against incumbent President George Weah of the Coalition of Democratic Change (CDC), who is seeking a second six-year term.
The main contender who poses a real threat to President Weah is the former vice president under Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Joseph Nyuma Boakai, who previously was in a four-party opposition alliance, the Coalition of Political Parties (CPP) with another candidate and former Coca-Cola executive, Alexander Cummings.
The coalition broke up after reported disagreements over who gets the presidential ticket in this election.
In Liberia, coalitions and alliances are integral to electoral victory. Every presidential election since the end of the country’s civil war in 2003 has been won based on a party’s coalitions and alliances, and it will also be a major factor ih this election.
George Weah
President Weah, who has been in office since 2017 and is running for a second term, boasts that he will secure outright victory in the first round of elections.
Weah has said his performance in the last six years will be enough to secure re-election. He counts as achievements a free tuition scheme for undergraduates of public universities that was instituted in 2018. His government is also touting its efforts that have seen increased electricity access and reduced costs from 38 cents per kilowatt to an average of 15 cents per kilowatt. The administration has also embarked on several road construction projects around the country.
Despite these efforts, critics point to widespread corruption under Weah. They also point to the state of the economy and rising food prices which led to protests in December last year and in June of 2019 as proof of his government’s failure.
Weah’s manifesto speaks of a plan to establish a compulsory social health insurance scheme and also promises to provide alternative power source, such as off-the-grid solar energy, for public hospitals and secondary schools.
Joseph Boakai
Joseph Boakai comes with decades of experience in Liberia’s public sector and has had a huge following since his last attempt for the seat in 2017. Boakai is aiming for the presidency, under the Unity Party (UP). The 78-year-old was previously minister of agriculture from 1983 to 1985 and was also vice president from 2006 to 2018, to Johnson-Sirleaf.
This year, Boakai is in an alliance with the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR), founded by former warlord-turned-senator Prince Johnson. Consequently, Boakai has selected MDR senator Jeremiah Koung as his running mate.
For many, Boakai’s second attempt at the presidency appears to pose a real threat to Weah’s re-election as his alliance with Johnson and Koung, who wield significant political influence in Nimba county, the second most populous county in the country, may boost his numbers greatly at the polls.
MDR’s alliance with Weah’s CDC in 2017, supporting it in the second round of elections. is believed to have been the reason for Weah’s victory. The alliance was dissolved in 2022 following Johnson’s complaints of a lack of job opportunities for “his people”.
Building on his experience, Boakai has made agriculture a key campaign issue, vowing to increase domestic rice production and to set up three agricultural machinery hubs in the country.
He has also promised to pave the highways connecting county capitals and those connecting Liberia to other countries, in order to improve cross-border trading.
The former vice president has also promised to work with the legislature to establish a specialised court that would fast-track cases of corruption and economic crimes and to support the private sector in developing programs for recycling solid waste into producing renewable energy.
However, critics have raised issues with Boakai’s age, saying that, at 78 years old, the rigours of governance would be too challenging for him. Several claims have also been made about him facing health challenges, which he has denied.
Alexander Cummings
Alexander Cummings made his first appearance on the Liberian political scene when he contested for the presidency in 2017 and placed fifth. This year, he is running on the platform of the Collaborating Political Party (CPP), a coalition between Cumming’s Alternative National Congress (ANC) and the Liberty Party (LP).
Cummings served as the head of Coca-Cola’s African subsidiary between 2001 and 2008 and as its global chief administrative officer from 2008 till he retired in 2016.
He has centred his campaign on diversifying Liberia’s economy. To this end, he has promised to establish a $20m empowerment fund to support women and youth-owned businesses as well as farmers within his first 100 days in office if he wins, while freezing all current tax and regulations to review in order to create a business-friendly environment. He has also spoken of a “buy Liberian” policy that will prioritise buying locally-made products to boost indigenous businesses.
Lastly, he has expressed support for the establishment of a war crimes court to prosecute key characters in the country’s civil wars of 1989-1997 and 1999-2003.
Cummings faces some challenges to his ambition. The CPP has suffered from internal strife, with two of the four parties in the coalition departing last year in a breakup that saw Cummings accused of altering coalition documents. The case was eventually thrown out but it has rocked the coalition to some.
Tiawan Gongloe
Another contender is Liberian People’s Party’s (LPP) Tiawan Gongloe, a renowned human rights lawyer and professor of law who served as the country’s solicitor general during the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf administration. Described by many as the poor man’s lawyer, Gongloe has centred his campaign around fighting corruption.
While his advocacy for Liberia’s disadvantaged, which makes up a considerable percentage of the country’s population, has made him popular among that demographic, many do not believe Gongloe possesses the political influence to garner the numbers that could see him pull a victory.
