The National Elections Commission (NEC) of Liberia has set Thursday for the announcement of official provisional results of Tuesday’s presidential runoff election in the country.
The run-off was between former FIFA World Football of the Year, Sen. George Weah, and incumbent Vice President, Mr Joseph Boakai, to succeed outgoing President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
Spokesman of the commission, Mr Henry Flomo, who announced the date on Wednesday, said tallying of votes was ongoing at different centres across the country.
Flomo said the commission did not schedule a press conference for Wednesday as widely reported in the local media, and regretted any inconveniences the misinformation might have caused.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Liberians are eagerly awaiting announcement of the official results by NEC.
The NEC has, however, warned parties and the media against declaring unofficial results.
Preliminary results trickling in from collation centres across the country through radio stations indicate that Weah is in early lead.
As of the time of filing this report at 7.30 p.m. Liberian time (1930 GMT), Weah was ahead in three counties (Bomi, Margibi and Grand Bassa) with over 50 per cent of the votes processed so far.
Reports from different parts of the country indicate that supporters of Weah are already celebrating his purported victory.
Meanwhile, the ECOWAS Election Observation Mission to Liberia has called on NEC to “work diligently and expedite action on the proclamation of results to avoid creating anxiety’’.
Head of the mission and former President of Ghana, Mr John Mahama, made the call at a press conference in Monrovia on Wednesday evening.
He also urged the electoral umpire to conduct the concluding part of the process with “fairness, openness and transparency until the proclamation of results’’. (NAN)