Liberia's George Weah, Joseph Boakai face presidential runoff next month

MONROVIA: Former international footballer George Weah and Liberia's Vice President Joseph Boakai will face a runoff for the presidency on November 7, the national election commission announced Sunday. 

With tallies in from 95.6 percent of polling stations, Weah took 39.0 percent of the votes and Boakai 29.1 percent, both well short of the 50 percent barrier required to win outright from the first round of voting held on Tuesday.

National Elections Commission chairman Jerome Korkoya told journalists that 1,550,923 votes had been counted and turnout was at 74.52 percent.

Three other candidates took a significant share of votes with veteran opposition leader Charles Brumskine at 9.8 percent, former Coca-Cola Executive Alexander Cummings at 7.1 percent and former warlord turned preacher Prince Johnson at 7.0 percent.

These candidates will now decide which runoff contender they will direct their supporters to follow, holding significant sway over the final results.