In the tightly contested presidential race against his arch-rival, Joseph Boakai, former vice president of Liberia, President George Weah has reclaimed the lead.
Weah overtook the former vice president’s earlier lead by 800 ballots and now leads by a margin of 5,456 votes with just over 98% of the country’s 5,890 polling locations reporting their results.
According to the National Elections Commission’s most recent data, President Weah has received 791,661 votes or 43.79% of the total votes cast. Boakai is not far behind with 786,205 votes or 43.49% of the votes that have been counted thus far. For the previous few days, the race has been close, with both contenders vying ferociously for every vote.
Read also: Boakai overtakes George Weah by 800 votes
As of right now, the percentage data is startlingly comparable to yesterday’s, showing that neither contender has been able to gain a big lead. The winning candidate must receive more than 50.1% of the total number of votes cast, according to the constitution, the Liberian Observer reported.
The constitution mandates that a runoff election be held on November 7 if neither contender is able to gain the necessary number of votes. As things stand, a runoff appears likely because neither Weah nor Boakai can currently reach the constitutional threshold of 50.1 percent.
