Former soccer star George Weah wins Liberian senate race in a landslide

MONROVIA, Liberia, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- George Weah, the world-famous former soccer player from Liberia named the 1995 FIFA World Player of the Year, has been elected to a senate seat in his home country.

Weah's election gives him a senate seat in Montserrado county. The county includes Liberia's capital city Monrovia, which has a population of nearly one million people.

The election was not highly contested, with Weah receiving 78 percent of the vote. His opponent, the son of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, only received 11 percent.

Weah is the only African to ever receive the honor of being FIFA's world player of the year, and he has also received the European footballer of the year award called the Ballon d'Or. He retired from soccer in 2007.

The election was originally planned for October but had to be delayed because of the Ebola outbreak, which killed 3,400 people in the country.

The country has 28 political parties, and no single party was able to achieve a majority. The ruling Unity Party captured the most with four seats. The election commission said roughly 25 percent of eligible voters showed up on election day.