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MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Former soccer star George Weah has won a seat in the Liberian Senate by coming out ahead of the president's son, according to Liberia's election commission.
Weah received 78 percent of the vote while Robert Sirleaf took nearly 11 percent, Jerome Korkoya, the chairman of the national electoral body, announced Saturday. Korkoya called the conclusion of the electoral process "the end of a crucial journey."
Originally scheduled for October, the elections were pushed back to December as Liberia struggled to contain the Ebola epidemic.
Nearly 3,400 people have died from Ebola in Liberia this year, according to the World Health Organization.
Weah, the first African to win FIFA's world soccer player of the year award in 1995, won the first round of Liberia's 2005 presidential race, but he lost the runoff to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
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