Liberian leader and football legend George Weah conceded defeat to opposition leader Joseph Boakai after a tight presidential run-off, saying it was “time to put national interest above personal interest”.
The latest and nearly complete results showed Boakai leading with nearly 51 percent of the votes in
Liberia, Africa’s oldest republic founded by freed American slaves.

“The results announced tonight, though not final, indicate that… Boakai is in a lead that we cannot
surpass,” Weah said in a speech on national radio late on Friday.
He said his CDC party “has lost the election but Liberia has won,” adding: “This is the time for
graciousness in defeat”. With more than 99.5 percent of the polling stations reporting vote tallies after Tuesday’s second-round vote, Boakai had garnered 50.89 percent of ballots cast, according to the election commission.

Boakai was 28,000 votes ahead of Weah, according to Friday’s figures. The two finished neck-and-neck
in the first round last month, with a national lead of just 7,126 votes for Weah.
The election of Weah — the first African footballer to win both FIFA’s World Player of the Year trophy
and the Ballon d’Or — had sparked high hopes of change in Liberia, which is still reeling from back-to-
back civil wars and the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic.

But critics have accused his government of corruption and him of failing to keep a promise to improve
the lives of the poorest.