Former star soccer player George Weah was on Thursday named winner of Liberia’s presidential election, easily beating his challenger in the country’s first democratic transfer of power in seven decades.
Weah is the only African ever to have won the FIFA World Player of the Year and the coveted FIFA Ballon d’Or. In in 1996, he was named African Player of the Century.
With almost all ballots counted, Liberian National Election Commission President Jerome Korkoya said final results would be released laster yesterday, but Weah wasted no time in acknowledging his win.
Photo: AFP
“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,” he posted on Twitter.
Hundreds of his supporters took to the streets of Monrovia, singing, dancing and embracing each other as news of his victory spread.
“I’ve never been so happy in all my life. We were in opposition for 12 years. We’re going to make history, like the children of South Africa did. I’m so excited,” said Josephine Davies, vice president of the youth wing of Weah’s Congress for Democratic Change. “We’ve waited 12 years, now power is going to the people.”
Weah missed out on the presidency in a 2005 bid. He was similarly frustrated when he ran for vice president in 2011, but his party repeatedly urged its young and exuberant supporters to keep calm.
The run-off was delayed for seven weeks due to legal challenges lodged by the Unity Party against the electoral commission over the conduct of the first round, but many of the complaints appeared to have been addressed in the second round.
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
RSS