Liberia is set to hold its presidential election on Tuesday, October 10.
There are 19 people vying for the position of president to succeed President George Weah, who is running for re-election.
Weah, a former international football star who received more than 61 percent of the vote in the 2017 second round, has three strong opponents who could challenge him.
Weah had spent the previous decade building political credibility, including three years in the Senate, to match his sporting icon status. Today, the 57-year-old is campaigning hard to convince Liberians he can still improve their lives.
Losing candidate in the final round of voting in 2017, Joseph Boakai looks to be on his last bid for the presidency at the age of 78. He has served the state for four decades.
Vice president to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf from 2006 to 2018, Boakai can boast of his years of experience.
Boakai is from the indigenous population, like George Weah, and not the US-Liberian elite, who founded the free nation and were descended from slaves.
Boakai has long been preparing for the election as the candidate for the Unity Party, one of the leading political groups in Liberia.
He has struck an alliance with former warlord and senator Prince Johnson, who had backed Weah in 2017, and retains strong support in his home province of Nimba in the north.
