Liberia Teaches Sierra Leone Lessons In Democracy

Sierra Leone Telegraph

Liberians, especially their President, George Weah, have shown President Bio of Sierra Leone that brutality and stealing of the people’s votes have no place in a civilised and democratic nation.

In a welcoming and rare display of magnanimity and grace by an African leader, President George Weah accepted losing Presidential Run-Off Election held last week, after the first-round results showed that neither he, nor the opposition candidate had won an outright 50% majority at the polls.

Conceding defeat even before all the results had been counted, President Weah, who must now be considered for the Mo Ibrahim Africa Governance Award, if not a Nobel Prize Award, said through the Office of the President:

“The President of the Republic, H.E. Dr. George Manneh Weah, has congratulated Joseph N. Boakai as winner of the 2023 Presidential Run-Off Election. President Weah called Mr. Boakai via telephone following the announcement of provisional results by the National Elections Commission (NEC) on Friday, November 17, 2023. The Liberian Chief Executive said Liberians are the winners of the elections and called on his support to accept the results.”

In June this year, Presidential and general elections were held in Sierra Leone. The results seen by local and international election observers and verified by the American government, clearly showed that neither President Bio, nor the opposition candidate Dr Samura Kamara had won the election.

But Sierra Leone’s Electoral Commissioner – Mohamed Konneh, who is a known financial supporter of President Bio’s ruling SLPP party, went ahead and announced President Bio the winner.

Unlike Mohamed Konneh of Sierra Leone, who is being accused of rigging the elections in favour of President Bio, Liberia’s Chief Electoral Commissioner, Davidetta Brown, without fear or favour, had shown moral courage and fortitude by announcing last month that no candidate had won the Liberian Presidential Election, and therefore ordered a re-run.

In reply, President George Weah did not threaten war or violence on the people of Liberia, nor ordered his Presidential guards to take to the streets along with his well-armed party agents. He accepted defeat gracefully, unlike President Bio, who, prior to the elections, had ordered the killing of dozens of opposition supporters and threaten war if he was not returned winner of the election.

President Weah told the people of Liberia that he has congratulated his opponent – Joseph Nyuma Boakai, whom he described as the President-elect of Liberia.  Weah has called on all his supporters to accept defeat and go about their normal business, emphasising that “the result is a victory for all Liberians”.

This is a day for Africa to celebrate democracy and pour shame on the likes of President Bio of Sierra Leone, who is willing, capable and has demonstrated time and again, that he can take the lives of poor unarmed citizens, whose only crime is to peacefully assert their democratic rights in Sierra Leone.

The international community in Sierra Leone must also be held accountable for their moral failure to hold President Bio personally responsible, for the killing of over two hundred unarmed citizens of Sierra Leone since coming to power in 2018.

President George Weah, who came to power after winning the 2018 elections on his manifesto promise to fight corruption in Liberia and tackle the country’s economic woes, has now been rejected by the people of Liberia.

This is no doubt what the people of Sierra Leone have emphatically done to President Bio of Sierra Leone, who has refused to publish the results of the June 2023 elections in order to conceal his defeat.

What a striking moral contrast between President Bio of Sierra Leone and President George Weah of Liberia

The 78-year-old Joseph Boakai to whom Weah has conceded victory, had previously served as Vice President for twelve years under former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Soon he will be sworn-in as President of Liberia.

With more than 99 percent of the ballots counted, Mr. Boakai has polled 50.89 percent of the declared results, with George Weah polling 49.11 percent. Only 50% is required to win outright.