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Ghana’s former President John Mahama, Head of ECOWAS Election Observation Mission has congratulated Liberians for the successful 26th December presidential run-off vote and urged them to sustain the level of enthusiasm for national reconstruction and consolidation of democracy in the country.
“Liberians have made themselves and the ECOWAS region proud and with the election fever now over, every Liberian should see the task of nation-building and development as a collective patriotic responsibility,” the Head of Mission said in Monrovia on Friday.
While assuring that ECOWAS would continue to standby Liberia and its people, he also called on the international community to provide the country with more support.
The Ghanaian statesman and his team attended the conference where the National Elections Commission (NEC), Liberia on Thursday announced provisional results of the election giving candidate George Weah 61.5 per cent of the vote and his rival the out-going Vice President Joseph Boakai 38.5 per cent with 98.1 per cent of the ballot tally processed.
He urged the candidates to be magnanimous in victory and gracious in accepting the will of the Liberian people.
“Election is a process, which precedes the much higher task of governance that requires the positive contribution of all political actors and stakeholders,” said the former President, who also headed the ECOWAS Observation Mission to the first round vote on October 10.
In its Preliminary Declaration on 27th December, the latest Mission expressed its satisfaction with the peaceful conduct of the run-off vote noting that the process up to the counting of ballots was also transparent and credible.
The Mission congratulated NEC for its professionalism and the measures it had put in place with the support of an ECOWAS Technical Team, to improve the electoral process.
Liberians and the international observers have commended the work of the ECOWAS Technical Team, led by former Chair of Ghana’s Electoral Commission Dr. Kwado Afari-Gyan with IT experts from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigeria, for their invaluable recommendations and especially, for cleaning up the contentious voter’s register for the run-off election.
An ECOWAS Commission delegation, which provided support to the Mahama-led Observation Mission was led by the Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Mrs Halima Ahmed and also included the ECOWAS Special Representative to Liberia, Ambassador Babatunde Ajisomo and the Director of Political Affairs Dr Remi Ajibewa.
