By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Liberia’s National Elections Commission (NEC) on Saturday declared campaigns open ahead of Oct 10 election in which the incumbent President George Weah is seeking a second term of six years in a country engulfed by huge economic challenges.
In a statement read out on national radio, the NEC which has accredited 46 political parties says the campaigns would continue until midnight of October 8.
High hopes greeted the 2017 election of Weah, a former football star in the West African nation which was recovering from an Ebola epidemic.
Weah, 56, announced in January that he would run again where he will face 19 rivals including former vice president Joseph Boakai, businessman Alexander Cummings and human rights lawyer Taiwan Gongloe.
NEC says more than 2.4 million voters are registered to participate in the exercise in the West African country which suffered a brutal civil war between 1989 and 2003.
NEC chair Davidetta Browne Lansanah called on Liberians to “go into the political campaign peacefully”.
Liberia has about five million population and had barely begun recovering from the coronavirus pandemic when the fallout from the war in Ukraine battered its economy.
According to the World Bank, half of Liberians live on less than $1.90 per day.
Weah came to power promising to create jobs and invest in education, but critics say he has failed to keep his pledges amidst corruption allegations against him.
