Liberia’s Peaceful Power Transfer Holds Some Calm, And a Red Flag
AFRICA THOUGHT – News features, commentaries, analyses, interviews & Op-ed. By Charles Watton Joseph Boakai was sworn in as Liberia’s 26th president on 22 January 2024. Boakai secured a six year term of office after defeating incumbent president George Weah in a keenly contested November 2023 poll with 50.9% of the votes cast. The west African country of five million people reached a major milestone on 17 November 2023, when Weah, of the Congress for Democratic Change, conceded defeat to the Unity Party candidate. Weah scored 49.1% of votes cast and lost the tight presidential run-off, which the EU described as “remarkably close and well administered”. Liberia has enjoyed 20 years of peace and relative stability since the end of a civil war that killed over 250,000 people and displaced Liberians across the world.