Weah elected as new Liberian leader

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George Weah [Photo/CCTV]

Celebrations have begun in Liberia after former FIFA World Player of the Year George Weah won the West African nation's presidential election by a wide margin.

Vice-President Joseph Boakai conceded on Friday, congratulating Weah.

With more than 98 percent of votes counted late on Thursday from this week's runoff, Weah received 61.5 percent of ballots while Boakai received 38.5 percent.

"My fellow Liberians, I deeply feel the emotion of all the nation. I measure the importance and the responsibility of the immense task which I embrace today. Change is on," Weah posted on Twitter.

His supporters paraded through the streets of the capital Monrovia and honked car horns to celebrate the news.

"Success for George Weah is victory for the whole country," a 47-year-old engineer named Randall Zarkpah said as he walked home with his young son through streets filled with the sounds of car horns and loud cheers as dusk fell.

"When you feel sick for some time and you receive proper medication - that is how I feel now. He will be good for our country. He is King George!"

French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the ex-star striker's victory in a tweet on Friday. "Congratulations to Mister George for this election! Great moment for Liberia!"

Weah grew up in a Clara Town slum in Monrovia and went on to star for AC Milan, Paris St Germain and Chelsea. He is the only African to win FIFA World Player of the Year.

Liberia, a nation founded by freed slaves from the United States, is seeing its first peaceful transfer of power in more than 70 years as Africa's first female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, steps aside. She led the country from back-to-back civil wars and saw it through a deadly Ebola outbreak that killed nearly 5,000 Liberians.

Taking office in January

The 51-year-old Weah, a senator who entered politics after his 2002 retirement from soccer, led the first-round vote in October but didn't receive enough ballots to win outright over the 73-year-old Boakai, who has been vice president for 12 years. Sirleaf didn't publicly support either candidate.

The new president is expected to take office in January.

"I've never been so happy in all my life. We were in opposition for 12 years. We're going to make history, like the children of South Africa did," said Josephine Davies, vice-president of the youth wing of Weah's Congress for Democratic Change.

Though voter turnout for Tuesday's runoff was low, Weah drew support from the younger generation, which makes up a majority of Liberia's population of 4.6 million people.

The commission said 56 percent of the country's 2.2 million registered voters cast ballots in the runoff, which was contested twice in court amid claims of irregularities, with its original Nov 7 date delayed.

Weah also ran in the country's last two elections, winning the first round of the 2005 vote that eventually went to Sirleaf.

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