Joseph Boakai has been sworn in as Liberia’s president on Monday following his election victory over former football star George Weah, with the challenge of tackling poverty and corruption.
The 79-year-old narrowly beat former Ballon d’Or winner Weah in November’s run-off poll with 50.64 percent of the votes to 49.36 percent.
He was sworn in for a six-year term during a ceremony in parliament in the capital Monrovia at 10 am (10:00 GMT) in the presence of several foreign leaders and diplomatic delegations.
Boakai has 40 years of political experience already behind him.
He was vice president from 2006 to 2018 under Liberia’s first female president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, before being beaten by Weah in the 2017 election.
November’s poll in the West African country was peaceful in a region that has seen a succession of military coups in recent years in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Niger.
But the small nation of 5 million people has been plagued with corruption, high levels of poverty, and a weak justice system, after years of civil war.
Credit: aljazeera.com
