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If he wins another term in October, the former footballer pledges to pursue growth and peace.
Liberia’s President George Weah has announced his intention to run for re-election after an economic downturn and corruption allegations marred his first term.
It is Weah’s constitutional right to run again in the October 10 election, which marks the first peaceful transition of power in the West African country in seven decades.
“In the near future, I will come to you to ask you to renew the mandate I was given six years ago,” he said in parliament on Monday.
“The state of our nation is strong,” Weah said in defending his first term. We live in a peaceful and secure nation… The state of our nation is stable. It is our intention to keep it this way.”
A military coup in 1980 and a 14-year civil war that ended in 2003 have left Liberia in a state of recovery.
Young people and the poor helped Weah win the last general election in 2017 by securing a landslide victory.
In his campaign, the 56-year-old leader promised to end endemic corruption, which his predecessor, Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, failed to tackle.
According to Transparency International’s 2021 corruption perceptions index, Liberia ranks 136th out of 180 countries in terms of corruption.
There were widespread allegations of misuse of public funds within Weah’s administration following the loss of $100 million in newly printed central bank notes in 2018.
For their ongoing involvement in public corruption, the United States imposed sanctions last year on three Liberian government officials, including Weah’s chief of staff.
The disillusionment of the majority of the population is exacerbated by the economic decline of the nation.
The Ebola pandemic also devastated Liberia. Five million people live in this nation of extreme poverty, which has been heavily impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The World Bank estimates half of its population lives on less than $1.90 per day.
A year ago, Weah indicated he wanted to serve only two terms, citing protests in neighbouring Ivory Coast and Guinea over their third terms.
Founded as a colony in 1822 by former US slaves, Liberia became a republic 25 years later – Africa’s first.
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Source: Omanghana.com/SP
