Liberia's presidential election likely headed for a run-off
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00:00 Now to Liberia, which is heading for a rematch of the 2017 presidential runoff between incumbent George Weah and opponent Joseph Wakai,
00:09 with official provisional results on placing them neck and neck.
00:13 The process of announcing the results has been slowed down by several incidents,
00:18 including some ballot boxes destroyed and others stolen on voting day.
00:22 Justine Baidu gives us the latest.
00:28 The process of announcing the results from last Tuesday's elections has been slowed
00:32 by several incidents of violence in many of the polling stations where the elections occurred.
00:39 In Nimba, for example, which is the country's second largest county,
00:44 several ballot papers and election materials were either stolen or destroyed.
00:51 This forced the electoral commission to hold the elections in two particular polling stations.
00:57 The commission says it would now organise separate elections in these two polling stations this Friday.
01:04 The numbers in these stations aren't significant enough to affect the results in either the senatorial election or the presidential election,
01:12 but the commission says it will go ahead and organise this election before it would now officially announce the runoff,
01:21 which is expected to happen in the next two weeks.
01:25 In the Monserrato and Grand Cape Mount counties, for example,
01:30 several political party observers were arrested, alleged to have been involved in election violence or fraud.
01:39 The West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, has admonished the two key leaders,
01:46 which is President Riya and former Vice President Joseph Mwakai,
01:50 to rein in their supporters and ensure that the election process ends peacefully.
01:56 The elections have been hailed as having been organised peacefully and transparently
02:02 by a majority of the independent observers who came in from across the world.