Supreme Court considers fate of Liberia presidential runoff

Liberia's Supreme Court has said it would decide next week whether a runoff vote for the presidency will go ahead, after hearing arguments from an opposition party and the electoral commission.
Chief Justice Francis Korkpor said yesterday the court would issue a decision on Monday at 10am (local time) over whether the runoff between former international footballer George Weah and incumbent Vice-President Joseph Boakai would proceed.
However, most observers agree the scheduled date of November 7 now looks near-impossible.
Charles Brumskine, who came third in an October 10 election behind Weah and Boakai, is alleging "massive fraud and irregularities" marred the poll and is seeking a re-run of the whole vote.

The Weah-Boakai runoff was triggered after no single candidate gained more than 50 per cent of votes, though Weah topped the poll.
Boakai voiced support for Brumskine's legal complaint, and both men have separately accused President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of "interfering" in the elections before she steps down in January.

Commentators describe the election -- showcased as Liberia's first democratic transition in seven decades -- as a key test of stability after Sirleaf's presidency, which followed back-to-back civil wars between 1989-2003 in which an estimated quarter of a million people died.
On October 31, the five-judge Supreme Court ordered the National Elections Commission (NEC) to temporarily suspend election preparations -- a decision NEC Chairman Jerome Korkoya described as making November 7 a date it "does not look possible to meet".

In court, Brumskine said allowing the election to go ahead before his allegations are resolved by an internal complaint lodged with the NEC, or in court, was "tantamount to denying... due process of the law", representing his own party before the judges.
"This is not about winning or losing, this is about a system that has held the country hostage for years," Brumskine added, following his assertion in an interview with AFP on Thursday that the NEC's commissioners should all be sacked before any new poll.
Lawyers for the NEC argued the date and timing of the runoff was enshrined in the constitution and could not be altered for any legal complaint.