Liberia's National Elections Commission has published on its official website the final results of the November 14, 2023 presidential run-off.
Opposition candidate Joseph Boakai, who had already secured a win even before the final tally, got 814,481 votes (50.64%), while the incumbent President George Weah, who had already conceded defeat, got 793,914 votes (49.36%).
Boakai, 78, ran on the Unity Party (UP) ticket, while Weah, 57, sought to defend his seat through the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) party.
Only 20,567 votes separated the two top contenders, according to the final results published on the electoral commission's website at 5:52pm local time on Monday.
Voter turn-out slightly above 66%
The displayed results showed that all the 5,890 polling stations had submitted their results for tallying.
The voter turn-out in the November 14 election was 1,634,183, representing 66.12% of the total registered voters.
Boakai, who served as Liberia's vice president between 2006 and 2018, picked Jeremiah Koung, the senator of Liberia's northeastern county of Nimba, as his running mate.
The vice president-elect, who served in the House of Representatives of Liberia from 2012, was elected to the Senate in 2020. He is the leader of the Movement for Reconstruction and Democracy party.
Swearing-in
Boakai and 45-year-old Koung will be sworn into office in January 2024. The last time a presidential swearing-in was held in Liberia was on January 22, 2018, when Weah took the oath of office as the 25th Liberian president.
Boakai and Weah – just like in 2023 – had faced off in two rounds of voting in 2017, but it was Weah who prevailed in the presidential run-off at the time.
In the first round of voting held on October 10, 2023 – their most recent face-off – Weah got 804,087 votes (43.83%) against Boakai's 796,961 votes (43.44%) to trigger a run-off, given none of the two got at least 50% in the election.
During campaigns, Boakai said his administration will take a close look at mining concessions to ensure they benefit the country.
