International observers congratulate Liberia on peaceful vote

International observers have praised Liberia for the peaceful conduct of its presidential and parliamentary elections held on Tuesday.

Twenty candidates contested the presidential race, including incumbent George Weah and his main rival, Joseph Boakai.

The Community of West African States and the African Union congratulated both the government and the election commission for their organisation of the polls.

"Overall, the mission notes that the Liberians were able to freely exercise their constitutional rights in peaceful elections,” said the head of the African Union observer mission, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

“Therefore we implore all aggrieved parties to use the existing election dispute resolution mechanisms to address their grievances, and to do so within the provided time frames and condition, in order for Liberia to continue to improve its electoral process," she said.

European Union observers were also happy, with some reservations.

They described it as a largely peaceful and vibrant campaign in which fundamental freedoms were mostly respected and during which the media had been able to work freely.

"The election day was calm and well conducted by the National Elections Commission and their staff nationwide," said Andreas Schieder, the EU observation mission's chief observer.

“It showed Liberians democratic commitment and was positively assessed by the EU election observation mission observers. But high turnout, cumbersome procedures, and the implementation slowed the conducting of the polls.”

The EU mission added that the counting phase was assessed less positively due to omission or incorrect implementation of several important procedural steps intended to ensure integrity of the count.

The election commission has begun reporting preliminary results, with the final outcome to be announced within 15 days of the vote.

If no candidate wins an absolute majority, a run-off will be held in early November.

The vote was the first to take place in Liberia since the United Nations ended its peacekeeping mission there in 2018.

It was created after more than 250,000 people died in two civil wars between 1989 and 2003.