George Weah, an ex-footballer, wins Liberia’s presidential election

AS THE only African football player to have been awarded both FIFA’s World Player of the Year and the Ballon d’Or, George Weah is used to winning. However, one prize had evaded him—until this year. On December 26th the former AC Milan and Paris St-Germain player triumphed in the second round of Liberia’s presidential election. With 98.1% of ballots counted, Mr Weah defeated the current vice-president, Joseph Boakai, with 61.5% of the vote. He won all but one of Liberia’s 15 counties.

Mr Weah’s victory is an important milestone for the nascent democracy. Liberia suffered two brutal civil wars between 1989 and 2003. An estimated 250,000 people died and perhaps 90% of the economy was wiped out. In 1997, during a period of peace, Charles Taylor, a warlord, became president. Supporters were known to chant, “He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I’ll vote for him.”

When Mr Weah (pictured, in 2014) takes power in January, by contrast, it will be Liberia’s first peaceful transfer of power from one elected president to another since 1944. The run-off vote was delayed by a legal challenge to the first round of the election (in which Mr Weah came first with 38.4% of the vote to Mr Boakai’s 28.8%). The second round eventually proceeded with no violence, though turnout was only 56%, compared with 75.2% in the first round on October 10th.
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