The former international footballer George Weah will run for president of Liberia for a second time.<\/p>\n
He said he had the “vision” to transform the country.<\/p>\n
Mr Weah, who played for teams including Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan and Chelsea, was the highest-ranking African footballer in Fifa’s list of greatest players of the 20th century.<\/p>\n
His previous presidential bid, in 2005, was defeated by current president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.<\/p>\n
Her second term in office will end in 2017 and under the country’s constitution she cannot run again.<\/p>\n
During his football career, Mr Weah became a UN goodwill ambassador.<\/p>\n
Later he turned to politics. He is currently a senator for the western province of Montserrado, which includes the capital Monrovia.<\/p>\n
In 2011 he ran for vice-president under Winston Tubman but did not win.<\/p>\n
Mr Weah belongs to the opposition Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) party.<\/p>\n
Announcing his presidential bid in Monrovia, he said he had been a “victim of poverty” like many of his supporters, and said he would boost vocational education.<\/p>\n
Liberia’s national anthem was played before Mr Weah took to the stage.<\/p>\n
First, he held a moment of silence in memory of the thousands of people who died of Ebola.<\/p>\n
He told his crowd of supporters: “Our gathering here today is about the future of our country and our people.<\/p>\n
“In the last ten years our people have continued to live in abject poverty, education a mess, health delivery system a disaster, electricity and pipe-borne water elusive.”<\/p>\n
“Like many of you, I have been a victim of poverty,” he said. “There were times I didn’t have school fees.”<\/p>\n
A leading research organization has recently rated Mr Weah’s performance in the Senate as low.<\/p>\n
Party members from across Liberia presented a petition asking him to run, saying they believed he was the man “to solve Liberia’s numerous problems”.<\/p>\n
Some party members paraded up and down the sandy party headquarters, beneath giant portraits of Mr Weah.
\nThey sang: “George Weah is the man we want, George Weah is the man we want.”<\/p>\n
Mr Weah pledged to increase the national budget, work towards religious harmony, and support vocational education.<\/p>\n
To wild applause, he said: “God is with us, and hope is alive.”<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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