In the tightly contested presidential race against his arch-rival Joseph Boakai, 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.
At the moment, the percentage data is startlingly comparable to Tuesday’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 run-off election be held on November 7 if neither contender is able to gain the necessary number of votes. As things stand, a run-off appears likely because neither Weah nor Boakai can currently reach the constitutional threshold of 50.1 percent.