Voters in Liberia wait to results of runoff presidential election

Liberia’s National Elections Commission was expected to begin releasing provisional results Wednesday from the West African nation’s presidential runoff as a football star and the vice president compete to replace Africa’s first female head of state.

State radio correspondents reported unofficial results overnight indicating that former international soccer player George Weah led in several counties, but election authorities warned all parties to “stop making premature pronouncements.”

This is the first time in more than 70 years the country will see one democratically elected government hand power to another. Results will be announced progressively, though the elections commission has 2 weeks to give final results.

Nearly 2.2 million voters were choosing between the 51-year-old Weah and 73-year-old Vice President Joseph Boakai. The winner will replace Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who is stepping down after 2 terms.

Weah led the first round of voting on October 10 but did not get enough votes to win outright. The runoff was contested twice in court amid claims of irregularities, with its original November 7 date delayed.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Johnson-Sirleaf, 79, is stepping down after 2 terms in office that brought the country out of back-to-back civil wars and saw it grapple with a deadly Ebola outbreak.

As polls closed on Tuesday, election workers said turnout wasn’t as high as in October because legislative candidates who helped transport people to polling stations were not participating this time.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press