Liberia EC Declares 'No Winner Yet' In Presidential Polls

The National Election Commission (NEC) of Liberia, has stated that, contrary to claims on social media and some news portals suggesting a winner has been declared in Tuesday’s election, it has not started releasing provisional results of the elections as yet.

The West African country went to the polls on Tuesday to elect a new president following Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's 12-year reign as Africa’s first female President.

Voters are also picking new lawmakers in the West African Nation’s third post-civil war polls.

On Wednesday, several persons on Twitter and Facebook, without any official or provisional results, started congratulating football legend George Oppong Weah as the winner of the polls.

Twenty persons contested the presidency for which reason the election commission has indicated possibilities of a run-off.

They include former footballer Senator George Weah, Sirleaf’s Vice President Joseph Boakai, former rebel leader Prince Johnson, and the only woman in the race, former model Macdella Cooper.

There are 986 aspirants for the 73 seats in the House of representatives. 2,183,683 people registered to vote, and the elections body reports of a high turnout, although Liberia has a population of about five million.

However, the commission says its attention was drawn to the wave of public radio announcement of unofficial results of the 2017 elections, a situation it says it finds problematic.

The NEC has thus cautioned the general public, political parties and media persons alike, that per Section 2.9(g) of the New Election Law of 1986, only its outfit has the legal mandate to conduct elections and declare results thereof, adding that, when it begins to release provisional results (hopefully Thursday October 12), the process will be done at the NEC MEDIA CENTER, in the full glare of national and international media practitioners, as well as national and international partners and observers.

It said the NEC provisional results will also be posted on its official website:www.necliberia.org, and on its official facebook and twitter accounts.

Meanwhile, the NEC is requesting political parties and independent candidates to send representatives to the Montserrado Tally Center at the SKD Sports Complex in Paynesville, where results of the Tuesday elections are being tallied.

It said the tally begins from 9:00am to 6:00pm daily.

Parliamentarians, as well as members of the House of Representatives, are also expected to be elected.

Liberia Elections 2017