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Claim: Former Liberian President George Weah claimed, “We lost an election by a razor-thin margin—less than 20,000 votes.”
Verdict: According to the official results of the National Elections Commission (NEC) of Liberia, the ruling Unity Party (UP) won the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) with a little over 20,000 votes.
Full Text
Former Liberian President George Weah has claimed that his party, Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), lost to the ruling Unity Party (UP) by less than 20,000 votes during the 2023 elections in Liberia.
The ex-Liberian president made the claim on Saturday, April 12, 2025, during the launch of his party’s due payment scheme, which was held on the grounds of the party’s headquarters in Congo Town, outside the country’s capital, Monrovia.
He said, “We lost an election by a razor-thin margin—less than 20,000 votes. And yes, I conceded — not because I was weak, but because I was strong enough to put Liberia first.”
Ex-President Weah claimed that the programme was over one hour long between 33:05 and 34:05 minutes/seconds.
“I chose peace over conflict. I chose the Constitution over chaos. I chose democracy over division. And in doing so, we proved to the world that the CDC is not just a political party — we are a disciplined movement of patriots and peace-lovers,” Weah told a group of his partisans over the weekend.
Since DUBAWA was fully involved in Liberia’s 2023 presidential and legislative elections in October and November, it was only prudent to check the claim and provide the facts surrounding it.
Verification
The researcher first visited the official website of the Liberian National Elections Commission (NEC). According to the NEC, during the first round of the elections, George Weah emerged as number one, accumulating 804,087 votes, which amounted to 43.88%. His main rival, the ruling Unity Party (UP) of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, obtained 796,961 votes, representing 43.44% of the total votes cast.
The researcher also checked the November 7, 2023, runoff election results between the top contenders, ex-president George Weah and current president Joseph Boakai. We discovered that President Boakai obtained 814,481 votes, 50.64%, while ex-President Weah got 793,914 votes, representing 49.36%. The difference between 814,481 votes and 793,914 votes is 20,573 votes.
Conclusion
Based on all the searches conducted and the evidence available on the NEC’s official website, ex-President Weah’s claim that he lost by less than 20,000 votes is misleading.
