Liberians celebrated the election of former footballer George Weah as their new president on Thursday, December 28, after unofficial results showed he had taken more than 60 percent of the vote.
This video, taken by onlooker Daniel Wleh, shows an excited group of people celebrating in a street in the country’s capital Monrovia. Several vehicles are heard honking their horns as they drive past the jubilant scene. The clip was uploaded to Facebook shortly after it was announced the 51-year-old politician had won the election.
There were similar celebratory scenes throughout Monrovia on Thursday, Liberia-based news site Front Page Africa reported. The National Elections Commission (NEC) announced on Thursday, December 28, that Weah had won with a 61.5 percent share of the vote, against Vice President Joseph Boakai’s 38.5 percent, the site reported. At that time just 104 (1.9 percent) of polling places yet to announce their results.
Weah, a former striker for clubs including Paris St-Germain and AC Milan, retired from football in 2002. He will replace Africa’s first elected female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, as Liberia’s president, the BBC reported. He unsuccessfully ran for the presidency in 2005 against Sirleaf, but was later elected as a senator in 2014.
After the announcement, he tweeted: “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.” Credit: Facebook/Daniel D. Wleh via Storyful
