Liberia Prepares for Presidential Runoff

By Xinhua 

November 2, 2023

A voter has her finger marked with election ink at a polling station in Male, Maldives, Sept. 30, 2023. The second round of presidential election in the Maldives kicked off on Saturday, after no candidate secured more than 50 percent of votes in the first round to win outright. The runoff election featured a head-to-head contest between incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and People's National Congress coalition's candidate Mohamed Muizzu, who is also the mayor of capital city Male. (Xinhua)

Liberia’s electoral body has confirmed the arrival of ballot papers in preparation for the upcoming Nov. 14 presidential runoff in the West African country.

The ballot papers were successfully transported from Ghana, together with other electoral materials including the record of the count forms, mock ballots, and tactile ballot guides, said the National Elections Commission (NEC) in a statement sent to Xinhua Thursday.

“The ballots are currently in secured storage under the protection of state security authorities,” the NEC said.

It added that the deployment of the ballot papers and other sensitive and non-sensitive electoral materials to the 19 magisterial offices in the 15 counties for onward distribution to the 2,080 voting precincts nationwide will commence in the next few days.

The NEC declared a presidential runoff in late October between incumbent President George Weah of the Coalition for Democratic Change and former Vice President Joseph Boakai of the Unity Party, following an initial poll that saw none of the 20 presidential candidates securing the necessary percentage of votes required by the country’s electoral laws to claim outright victory.