Liberians vote in second post-war presidential election

Liberians vote in second post-war presidential election

2011-10-12 07:24:10 GMT+7 (ICT)

MONROVIA (BNO NEWS) -- Hundreds of thousands of Liberians on Tuesday took part in the second presidential and parliamentary elections since the end of its 10-year-conflict in 2003. United Nations (UN) peacekeepers were on standby for increased security.

Tuesday's elections are seen as a milestone in the African country's efforts to strengthen peace and democratic governance as sixteen candidates, including incumbent Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, are vying for the presidency. The main opponent is opposition leader Winston Tubman who is running with former football star George Weah as vice presidential candidate.

Most polling stations opened at 8 a.m. local time, although a small number of stations opened later due to heavy rains or delays in receiving voter materials. At the end of the day, at 6 p.m. local time, polls closed without reports of any significant incidents.

Nearly 1.8 million people had registered to vote in Tuesday's elections, which came just days after 72-year-old Johnson Sirleaf, who is Africa's first democratically elected female president, won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her work to improve women's rights.

The National Elections Commission (NEC) said it would begin releasing preliminary results on Thursday, with final results expected on October 26. Unofficial and incomplete results suggested a possible win for the ruling party and turnout was believed to be quite high, although no numbers were available as of Tuesday evening. If necessary, a run-off election will be held on November 8.

UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) spokesperson Yasmina Bouziane noted that this was the first time that Liberians were running their own elections. The previous elections in 2005 were managed by the UN, but this year's polls have been organized by the country's NEC.

The importance of the elections also led to UNMIL deploying more ground troops and increased air patrols to improve security and reassure Liberians as they went out to cast their vote. This turned out to be only a precaution as no major incidents were reported.

"We will be there to assist the Liberian national police who are the first and frontline for response to any incidents," Bouziane said earlier on Tuesday. "The police have been on the frontline for quite some time. They have also redoubled their efforts with regard to border patrols following the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)."

Bouziane also underlined that political campaigning in Liberia has "by and large" been peaceful since campaigning began earlier this year in July, except for some incidents of "heightened rhetoric."

Tuesday's polls marked Liberia's second democratic elections since the end of the decade-long conflict that killed nearly 150,000 people, mostly civilians, and sent 850,000 others fleeing to neighboring countries.

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