Liberia is set for the fourth election in its recent history (since the end of its civil war).
The streets of Monrovia were Sunday filled with supporters of George Weah, the incumbent Liberian president and flag bearer of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) in the upcoming election.
Defying the rain which started in the early hours of Sunday, supporters of the "dynamic black president", as Agnes Mahm likes to describe him, marched out of different corners of Montserrado county with Mr Weah's face printed on their blue shirts headed for the party headquarters where the grand finale of the campaign rally held.
As stipulated by the National Elections Commission (NEC) Liberia's election management body, campaigns for the 10 October general elections end at midnight today (Sunday).
Liberia is set for the fourth election in its recent history (since the end of its civil war). The election will see 20 contenders compete for the lone space at the Executive Mansion of Liberia.
Although there are 20 contenders, PREMIUM TIMES interaction with Liberians on arriving in Monrovia on Saturday, shows that it will be a two-horse race.
"It is a two-horse race between Weah and Boakai," said a commercial driver who gave his name as Mohammed.
Joseph Boakai was the vice president of Liberia under Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Mr Weah defeated him in a runoff after the 2017 election failed to produce a winner on the first ballot. He is seen by many as the main opposition to Mr Weah in the coming election.
Agnes Mahm, the secretary-general of CDC Montserrado Women's League is convinced that her party's candidate is the man for the job.
"Just in six years, he built hospitals, road, paid WASSCE fees for our children, whereas the Unity Party stayed in power for 12 years and were not able to construct roads or build hospitals," she told PREMIUM TIMES.
She went further to name him the best president ever in the history of Liberia.
Hundreds of women gathered at the Monrovia City Hall wearing shirts, caps and wrappers with Mr Weah's face printed on them singing, drumming, and dancing under the rain.
"I am under the rain because of the love I have for the president since 2005," Felicia Khan, a businesswoman said.
She said she believes that given the president's achievements in his first six years, he would do "exploits" if given another opportunity.
Mary Swev, a petty trader who sells soap, said Mr Weah is important to her family. "He made my children go to school, he paid my children WASSCE fee. I will be here until the end of the day."
Mr Weah in 2018 took over the payment of WASSCE fees for all 12th graders across Liberia.
Tutu Girlharris was also in the rain to campaign for the president who has paid the WASSCE fee of "our children."
Corruption Allegation
In 2022, three key members (the Chief of Staff, Liberia's Chief Prosecutor, and the Managing Director of the National Port Authority) of Mr Weah's government were indicted by the US for involvement in public corruption.
Although Mr Weah suspended the officials so they could be investigated, an opposition leader and candidate of the Alternative National Congress (ANC), Alexander Cummings, accused the president of culpability for their alleged misdeeds.
On the corruption allegation, Mrs Girlharris described them as malicious comments people make when they do not like others.
"If people do not like you, they will have things to say about you," she said.
As far as Mrs Swev is concerned, Mr Weah is not corrupt.
For Ms Mahm, the corruption allegations against members of the Weah government and inadvertently Mr Weah himself are all lies.
"If you say you sanction somebody, you must have proof. Those people sanctioned by the Americans, they (Americans) do not have proof?" she asked rhetorically.
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Liberia is Africa's oldest republic, founded by freed American and Caribbean slaves. The country is mostly inhabited by indigenous Africans, with the slaves' descendants comprising five per cent of the population.
Liberia became notorious in the 1990s for its long-running, ruinous civil wars and its role in a rebellion in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
At least 250,000 people were killed in the civil wars, and many thousands more fled the fighting as the economy collapsed.
The war ended in 2003 and in 2005 voters in the country elected Africa's first female head of state, Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf.
Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf, in a historic democratic transition of power since the end of the True Whig Party in 1980, handed over to Mr Weah in January 2018.
According to the World Bank, Liberia's economy expanded by 4.8 per cent in 2022 despite global headwinds from the war in Ukraine, high global inflation, and depressed demand in advanced economies. The expansion, it said, was driven by mining and agriculture.
