LIBERIA: Johnson-Sirleaf faces challenge from Tubman-Weah ticket after peaceful presidential election vote

Record ID: 644363

  • Title: LIBERIA: Johnson-Sirleaf faces challenge from Tubman-Weah ticket after peaceful presidential election vote
  • Date: 12th October 2011
  • Summary: MORE PEOPLE IN QUEUE
  • Embargoed: 27th October 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Liberia, Liberia
  • Country: Liberia
  • Topics: Conflict,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA271IOA0SGFB2NPZQO2QPEZMJ5
  • Story Text: Liberians voted peacefully in a presidential election on Tuesday (October 11) -- the West African state's second since a civil war -- though worries remained that the results could spark street clashes.
    The vote pitted newly named Nobel peace laureate President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf against former U.N. diplomat Winston Tubman and 14 others, and came as investors planned to sink billions of dollars into the country's mining and oil sectors.
    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.
    Many Liberians still wait for basic needs to be met.
    "We want school, free school, we want hospital, we pay money plenty to the hospital so we want free hospital. That why we want good person to get there so we eat well," said Cecilia Weah, a woman from the West Point district of Monrovia.
    Voters queued calmly, at times in pouring rain, to cast their ballots, and international election observers said they had received no reports of problems at the nation's polling stations.
    Passions have run high in the contest that some forecast will go to a second-round run-off between Johnson-Sirleaf and Tubman. The results of the first-round vote are expected within 15 days according to Liberia's electoral law.
    Many voters recall how a dispute over the outcome of the 2005 election led to days of rioting in Monrovia and say that must not repeat itself.
    "I work for myself I'm able to do anything for myself, I only want peace," said Amadou Camara, a man from Monrovia.
    "I ask everybody to accept the results. Because this is free and fair election. Anybody has seen that," Camara added.
    Unemployment remains high, war-wounded beg on the streets and average income stands at 300 U.S. Dollars a year -- below the 1 USD-a-day benchmark for extreme poverty.
    In West Point, a Monrovia slum where raw sewage trickles between a crush of makeshift brick and tin dwellings, home to many of the civil war's ex-child soldiers, many say Sirleaf hasn't done much.
    Others in West Point credited her with paving their main road and building a school and said they had voted for her.
    "For our road when it's raining you can't get in. You don't come in here. But in about a week she took to pave the road. She has done well for us. If you go to the interior you see there are new roads, there are hospitals, schools. There were no schools," said Gabriel Mobo, a man from West Point.
    "I wish her to go back. Because what she has started I'm sure by the time this man gets to your age he will lead a better life that what I had lived," Mobo said, pointing at a child playing not far from where he was sitting.
    Johnson-Sirleaf initially ruled out a second term, but has since said she needs one given the huge challenge. Her jocular campaign slogan -- "Monkey Still Working, Baboon Wait Small" -- urges Liberians to have a bit more patience.
    GM/JRC
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