CAF, African stars excited over Weah

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) , and other members of the continent’s football family are on cloud nine over George Weah.
Reports that Weah was coasting home to victory in the Liberia election was greeted with goodwill messages from CAF and World football stars who tweeted to hail Weah’s imminent emergence as the 25th President of the tiny West African country.
Meanwhile, Liberia’s National Electoral Commission (NEC) has fixed today for the commencement of announcement of the result of the presidential run-off, even as Weah, expressed confidence that he would win the election.
“The Liberian people clearly made their choice yesterday and altogether we are very confident in the result of the electoral process,” he said in a statement posted on his Facebook page on Wednesday.
Shortly after voting was concluded in Tuesday’s re run, the former football star had used the same platform to thank Liberians for voting for him, saying “It is with deep emotion that I want to thank you, the Liberian people for honoring me with your vote today. It is a great hope.”
“I am deeply grateful to my family, my friends, and my loyal supporters who contributed to our campaign during this extremely long election season. We are on the verge of making history for our people.”
Mr. Weah, 51, ran against the candidate of the ruling Unity Party (UP), Vice President Joseph Boakai, in the presidential re run held on Tuesday.
During the first round of voting Mr. Weah scored the most votes with 38 per cent of the total votes cast while Mr. Boakai garnered 29.1 percent.
Earlier on Tuesday, the UP had claimed early lead over the CDC.
Mohammed Ali, a spokesperson for the ruling party, made the claim on a Facebook post even though tallying and counting of votes were still underway and the electoral body, National Electoral Commission (NEC), was yet to announce the result of the poll.
According to the figures posted by Mr. Ali, which he said represented 30 per cent of votes from six of the country’s 15 counties, Mr. Boakai was ahead in four of the six counties whose provisional results he said had trickled in to his party.
|Sun