Liberia election: Sirleaf faces Tubman challenge

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Liberia election: Sirleaf faces Tubman challenge

Liberians queued outside polling stations on Tuesday to vote in their second presidential election since the end of a 14-year civil war.

The election pits the newly-named Nobel peace laureate, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, age 72, against former UN diplomat Winston Tubman, age 70 and 14 others.

Passions have run high in a contest some forecast will go to a second-round run-off between Johnson-Sirleaf and Tubman, and many voters recall how a dispute over the outcome of the 2005 election led to days of rioting in the capital Monrovia.

Reactions from voters

Monrovia resident Benjamin Nimley, as he queued with others to cast his vote at a high school converted into a polling station in the seaside capital, said, "We've had a difficult past, too hard, but today we are voting for peace."

A Monrovia local, Victor Freeman, who lost five family members in the civil war, referring to the ballot boxes was also quoted as saying "If they give us exactly what was put in there, we will accept it."

"We don't want fighting, we want a better Liberia", he said of Africa's oldest republic, whose name reflects its founding in 1847 by freed US slaves.

Challenges

Report says eight years into peace; Liberia has seen growing investment in its iron and gold mines and has convinced donors to waive most of its debt, though many residents complain of a lack of basic services, high food prices, rampant crime and corruption.  

The residents say unemployment remains rife, war-wounded beg on the streets of the seaside capital and average income stands at 300 dollars a year below the one dollar-a-day benchmark for extreme poverty.

Johnson-Sirleaf initially ruled out a second term, but has since said she needs one given the huge challenge.

However, her jocular campaign slogan – 'Monkey Still Working, Baboon Wait Small’’ – urges Liberians to have a bit more patience.

Johnson-Sirleaf became Africa's first freely elected female head of state in the 2005 election that was organized by the United Nations.

The election will however be Liberia's first locally-organized presidential poll since the end of the 1989-2003 conflict that killed nearly a quarter of a million people.

ECOWAS Mission

A 150-man ECOWAS Election Observation Mission led by Chairman of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Attahiru Jega, is in Liberia to observe the elections.

REUTERS/ BBC/Adekusibe/Ekata