Fraud probe to delay Liberia’s presidential election run-off – Election Commission

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Liberia’s presidential election run-off scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 7, would be delayed by Supreme Court fraud investigation, a spokesman for the National Elections Commission (NEC) said.

Former soccer star George Weah and Vice President Joseph Boakai were competing to succeed President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate whose election in 2005 helped
draw a line under 14 years of civil war.

The vote was meant to mark Liberia’s first democratic transition of power since 1944, but the Supreme Court this week halted preparations while it examined allegation by third-place finisher, Charles Brumskine’s Liberty Party that the Oct. 10 poll was marred by fraud.

Following arguments by the Liberty Party and the National Elections Commission, Chief Justice Francis Korkpor said the court would give its decision on Monday at 10 a.m., one day before the scheduled poll.

Meanwhile, NEC Spokesman, Henry Flomo, said “the election would definitely be delayed, but we don’t know for how long.

“The fact that the court would not rule until Monday is a delay.”

Weah, who became the first non-European to win the European soccer player of the year award in 1995, won the first round of voting with 38.4 per cent to Boakai’s 28.8 per cent. Brumskine won nearly 10 per cent. (Reuters/NAN)

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