title: Soccer star Weah and VP Boakai near Liberia presidential run-off
text: MONROVIA (Reuters) - Liberian former soccer star George Weah and Vice President Joseph Boakai were comfortably ahead in partial presidential election results announced on Saturday, and look set to contest a run-off next month. Weah and Boakai lead the 20-candidate field to succeed Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in what would be Liberia s first democratic transfer of power in more than 70 years. Weah received 39.2 percent of roughly 1.2 million ballots cast in nearly three-quarters of polling stations, ahead of Boakai, who had 29.6 percent of the vote, the commission said. Charles Brumskine, a lawyer, was a distant third with 9.7 percent. The final certified results from Tuesday s poll must be announced by Oct. 25, although provisional results from the remaining precincts are expected in the coming days. The commission said that ballots would be re-cast in two polling places in Nimba County due to irregularities, although that measure only concerns a few thousand votes. Weah became the first non-European to win the European player of the year award in 1995, the same year he picked up the African and World player of the year awards.  He finished runner-up to Johnson Sirleaf in a 2005 election that helped draw a line under years of civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians. He has been a senator for the opposition CDC party since 2014. Boakai, the former head of Liberia s petroleum refinery company and agriculture minister, has served as Liberia s vice president since 2006 and represents the ruling Unity Party.  Brumskine has said the vote was marred by fraud and that he would request a re-run. However, he has yet to produce evidence of cheating and international observers said they saw no major problems.  Johnson Sirleaf s 12 years in office have seen the consolidation of Liberia s post-war peace and the quadrupling in size of the national economy. However, many Liberians complain about poor public services and widespread corruption and say they are eager for a new president. Weah s strong first-round performance drew mixed reactions on the streets of Monrovia, the capital. One woman held a small radio close to her ear as the latest results were read out by the state broadcaster.  We will see a new president now come next year,  she said.  Our son Weah will be the next president.  Standing nearby, a man in his late 50s, Cyrus S. Mulbah, had a different view.  It will be a sad mistake if this country goes in the hands of Weah and his people,  he said  This is not a football field.   