.... As runoff campaign period which is expected to be at least two weeks will also be announced.
The National Elections Commission is expected to finally announce the results of the October 10 polls today, which have seen President George Weah neck and neck -- with runoff elections all but certain.
The article should state that with results from 99.9% of the county's 5,890 polling places counted so far, the President is in the lead with a slim margin, which has been the case since election results were first announced on October 11 -- with both of them swapping positions atop in the process.
As of October 18, the former football legend turned President has accumulated a total of 803,674 votes, constituting 43.84% of the ballots counted, as per NEC data. Hot on his heels is Boakai, a seasoned politician who closely follows with 796,313 votes, making up 43.44% of the total count.
The vote difference, however, stands at a mere 7,361 votes, which is just 0.40%. The see-sawing nature of the race had previously kept the entire country captivated, producing one of the slimmest margins in post-war Liberian history.
With neither candidate able to secure the necessary 50% plus one vote to claim an outright victory, the country is now headed for a runoff election. Liberia went to the polls on October 10, with registered voters of 2.4 million and with a little over 1.9 million votes tallied so far.
Both frontrunners have fallen short of the pledge to win the elections in the first round, as invalid votes total 114,597, constituting 6.26%. According to analysts, the failure of Boakai or Weah to have significantly dominated
Montserrado County, which has the national largest share of votes, around one million, is the main reason for their seesaw battle and the runoff, which is scheduled for a date yet to be determined by the electoral body.
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In the interim, both candidates and their respective political parties are gearing up for an intense and vigorous campaign, which would be very short, as the runoff election is expected to take place on November 7.
The electoral body, as part of its announcement today of the final results, would also be announcing the runoff campaign period, which is expected to be at least two weeks.
Davidetta Browne-Lansanah, the NEC Chairperson, announced during a press conference last week that the Commission had secured nearly all the necessary funds to conduct the potential presidential runoff election.
"I need to look at the budget to know what is in there for the runoff because it is not in front of me now," she said. "But I can assure you that we have received 99.9 percent of the money needed to conduct a runoff, if there will be a runoff."
In the lead-up to the October 10 polls, Lansanah had expressed concerns about inadequate funding for a possible runoff. However, she confidently declared during the press briefing that the funds are now available.
In August, she informed the Senate that the funding shortfall had been due to the Ministry of Finance providing only $3 million less than the amount required by the electoral body.
Lansanah had conveyed that a runoff election could only take place if the Ministry of Finance disbursed the remaining $3.2 million, as the Ministry had remitted slightly over $49 million of the $53 million budget approved by the legislature.
