Liberia’s electoral commission on Sunday announced that former footballer George Weah and incumbent Vice-President Joseph Boakai will face each other in a runoff vote for the presidency in November.

Background:

• Official reports had shown that Weah was leading during the week.

What is happening:

Weah has taken 39.0 percent of the votes and Boakai 29.1 percent, from the vote counts in from 95.6 percent of the polling stations.

Both candidates are well short of the 50 percent barrier required to win the presidency outright from the first round of voting held on Tuesday.

National Elections Commission chairman Jerome Korkoya told journalists that 1,550,923 votes had been counted and turnout was at 74.52 percent across this small west African nation.

Three other candidates took a significant share of votes, with veteran opposition leader, Charles Brumskine, at 9.8 percent; former Coca-Cola executive, Alexander Cummings, at 7.1 percent; and former-warlord-turned-preacher, Prince Johnson, at 7.0 percent.