Liberian opposition politician
and former football star
George Weah won a landslide
victory in Senate elections in
Ebola-ravaged Liberia, official
results showed Sunday.
Weah—who in 1995 became
the first and only African yet to
win the Ballon d'Or as European
footballer of the year and who
played for AC Milan, Paris Saint
Germain and Monaco — trounced
his rival Robert Sirleaf, the son of
Liberian President Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf.
Weah got 78 percent of the
vote in Montserrado county in the
December 20 poll to fill half the
seats of the Senate. Turnout was
around 25 percent, according to
the national election commission.
The election was originally
due to be held in October but was
postponed over the Ebola outbreak
in Liberia.
Sirleaf, who was running as
an independent, registered 10.8
percent of the vote.
Montserrado county, in
northwestern Liberia, is the west
African country's most populous
region and home to nearly a third
of its population of four million.
Liberia tops the number
of Ebola deaths in the current
outbreak with 3,384 fatalities, but
it has seen a clear decrease of new
transmissions in the past month.
Weah, a popular figure in
Liberia since his days as a deadly
centre-forward, won the first
round of the 2005 presidential
election, but lost the runoff to
Johnson Sirleaf. A 2011 election
campaign was also unsuccessful.
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