- Title: LIBERIA: Early results show Weah ahead in Liberian election
- Date: 14th October 2005
- Summary: MONROVIA, LIBERIA (OCTOBER 13, 2005)(REUTERS) PEOPLE WATCHING AT MAN WRITING LAST RESULTS ON BLACKBOARD IN STREET OF MONROVIA ALFRED SIRLEAF WRITING LAST RESULTS ON BLACKBOARD ON HIS DAILY TALKS SHACK PEOPLE WATCHING LAST RESULTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALFRED SIRLEAF, MANAGING EDITOR OF DAILY TALKS, SAYING: ''I give summary of news, I do not go down into details or make the news bulky because you don't have to hold the people. It is something like you only stop by just review paragraphs,know exactly what happens.So it's the most important news that I give to the people.''
- Embargoed: 29th October 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Liberia
- City:
- Country: Liberia
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAE4AD7059B4B21X135H2RW9BHD
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: Liberians crowded around radios and newspaper stands on Thursday (October 13) as early results showed soccer star George Weah leading the country's first post-war polls but facing a run-off with former Finance Minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Results trickled in agonisingly slowly from Tuesday's presidential and parliamentary elections, the first since the end of a brutal 14-year civil war, as U.N. helicopters flew ballot boxes back from remote villages. Election officials cautioned that only a small proportion of the votes had been counted and that a final result could take up to a week. Local media compounded the confusion on the streets, with some newspapers putting Johnson-Sirleaf in the lead, others saying Weah was ahead, and still more saying the contest would go to a second round. Few in Monrovia, which is still without piped water or mains electricity, can afford to buy a newspaper, let alone the generator they would need to power a television. In the Sinkor suburb of the city, crowds gathered around a wooden shack called the "Daily Talk", its front wall a blackboard carrying the latest results. ''I give summary of news. I do not go down into details or make the news bulky because you don't have to hold the people. It is something like you only stop by just review paragraphs, know exactly what happens. So it's the most important news that I give to the people,'' said Alfred Sirleaf, who calls himself the managing editor and occasionally emerges from his "newsroom" inside to write up results he has heard on U.N. radio. While Weah's votes were still being counted, he was able to claim victory on the basketball court during a friendly match at his residence in Monrovia. His Old School team beat the NPA Pythons, which included players from Liberia's national basketball team. Weah, 39, is expected to do well in Monrovia, where he grew up and his well-funded campaign has drawn huge crowds. His support in the rest of the country is untested as he has no established party machine behind him. Some question whether the soccer star has the qualifications and political experience to be president. His supporters retort that Harvard-trained professionals such as Johnson-Sirleaf have done little to help ordinary Liberians in the past two decades. Both have said they would work together whoever wins and have pledged to make reconstruction their priority.
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