Liberia Elections Body Says 20 Candidates to Vie for President

(Bloomberg) -- Liberia's National Elections Commission said 20 candidates will contest to succeed President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in polls that are scheduled for October.

Vice-President Joseph Boakai will run on the ticket of the ruling Unity Party in a vote that will also be contested by former soccer World Player of the Year George Weah, the candidate for the main opposition Coalition for Democratic Change, NEC Chairman Jerome Korkoya told reporters on Sunday in the capital, Monrovia.

The elections body also certified 986 candidates standing for the West African nation of 4.6 million's House of Representatives, which has 73 seats.

The country will vote to replace Nobel laureate Johnson-Sirleaf, who won Liberia's first democratic elections after a protracted civil war ended in 2003. Her government is struggling to revive an economy after an outbreak of Ebola in 2014 lasted for more than a year while prices of iron ore, the country's largest source of foreign currency, slumped.

To contact the reporter on this story: Festus Poquie in Johannesburg at fpoqie@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andre Janse van Vuuren at ajansevanvuu@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn