Ex-warlord endorses George Weah for President

Former Liberian warlord Prince Johnson has endorsed George Weah for president ahead of a Nov. 7 run-off vote between the former soccer star and current Vice President Joseph Boakai.

Johnson took more than eight per cent of votes in the first round and his support is seen as a crucial boost for Weah, who won 38.4 per cent, shy of the 50.1 per cent needed to win outright in one round.

NAN reports that a consignment of ballot papers for the election is expected to arrive in the country on October 28, the National Elections Commission (NEC) disclosed on Wednesday.

NEC chairman, Jerome Korkoya, said the commission had ordered 3,053,435 ballots, the same quantity printed for the first round of the elections.

“The ballots are being printed in Slovenia,’’ the commissioner said.

NEC registered 2,183,629 voters, but 1,641,922 or 75 per cent turned out on October 10 in the first round of the polls.

Because none of the 20 contesting political parties won over 50 per cent of the votes, NEC declared a run-off between the ruling Unity Party and Coalition for Democratic Change.

Korkoya, while addressing a news conference in Monrovia, also disclosed that the commission has received 56 election-related complaints, 33 of which have been concluded and forwarded to NEC Board of Commissioners.

He added that it all comprised seven members of the electoral body.

He revealed that NEC has begun hearing the complaint of All Liberian Party challenging the conduct of the Oct. 10 elections, while it just received another complaint from Liberty Party petitioning it for a re-run of the first round of the polls.

He, however, encouraged political parties to be represented at all polling places and to train their agents in their role at polling places.