“As the chairman of the largest organization of political parties in Africa, my expectation is that this election in Liberia will rekindle our faith in democracy. Also, the democratic tenets in the West African Sub-region in particular and the entire African continent in general,” Mr Yabagi said.
On October 11, the IPAC observer mission team is expected to return to Nigeria. Meanwhile, over 2.4 million Liberians are set to participate in the upcoming presidential and legislative elections. Among the 19 candidates running for president, incumbent George Weah of the Coalition of Democratic Change (CDC) is seeking a second six-year term.
His main challengers are former Vice-President Joseph Boakai and businessman Alexander Cummings, who were previously part of the opposition alliance called the Coalition of Political Parties (CPP). However, the coalition has disbanded due to disagreements over the presidential ticket for this election cycle.
Other candidates include Tiawan Gongloe of the Liberian People’s Party, a renowned human rights lawyer and law professor who served as the country’s solicitor general during the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf administration. Despite Johnson-Sirleaf’s historic election in 2006 as Africa’s first elected female leader, political inclusivity remains a challenge in Liberia and other parts of the continent.
Only two of the 20 contenders in the upcoming presidential vote are women, including Sara Nyanti, a former deputy special representative in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. Mr Weah has expressed confidence in securing outright victory in the first round of elections. He has been in office since 2017.