Former World Footballer of the Year, George Weah, completed a stunning transformation from an extraordinarily talented sportsman to an accomplished politician after he was declared winner of Liberia’s presidential election late on Thursday. With 98.1 per cent of the votes counted and Weah leading by 61.5 per cent, the Liberia National Elections Commission declared him the winner of the run-off. He takes over from Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first elected female president of an African country. Campaigning on the platform of economic empowerment for a people still scarred by two bitterly-fought civil wars that lasted for 14 years, and the devastating outbreak of Ebola virus disease that threatened to wipe out entire communities, Weah was able to defeat the incumbent Vice-President, 73-year-old Joseph Boakai, who thought he could continue from where his boss, Sirleaf, ended. It is a triumph for courage and doggedness that has seen the former ace footballer claw his way back after a...
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