LIBERIA: New UN chief says peaceful elections his top priority

MONROVIA, 24 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - The new head of the UN Mission in Liberia, Alan Doss, said on Wednesday that his immediate priority was ensuring that October's crunch elections pass off peacefully.

Liberians head to the polls on 11 October to choose a new president and parliament in polls that are supposed to return the West African country to democracy after 14 years of civil war.

"The most immediate priority is to ensure that elections are held in a free, fair and transparent manner in an atmosphere of peace and security," Doss, a career UN diplomat, told reporters.

With so many former fighters among the 1.3 million people expected to vote, observers and diplomats say there is the potential for trouble when one candidate wins and the others lose.

Just hours after the election campaign kicked off last week, there was scattered low-level violence as rival political supporters tore down posters and damaged several cars.

The Liberian government had already banned public demonstrations not approved by authorities but tightened its restrictions in the wake of the trouble to include all forms of street campaign that had "the propensity to destroy the peace and security".

Around 15,000 UN peacekeepers are deployed across the heavily-forested nation, and security concerns still loom large.

"Despite the peace in this country and the fact that UN troops are deployed throughout the country, there are many challenges ahead," Doss said. "Security is the focus, because without security, there can not be recovery and development."

In the longer term, Doss faces the difficult task of persuading Liberia's notoriously corrupt government officials to mend their ways while at the same time securing international aid to help rebuild the country after the civil war which ended in August 2003.

International donors have threatened to withhold funding for Liberia's reconstruction if politicians continue to squander cash designed to help the country's estimated three million population.

Donors are currently trying to agree with the government on a plan to reduce corruption, known as the Governance and Economic Management Assistance Plan (GEMAP).

"It is under discussion," Doss said. "The main concern is to strengthen the financial base of Liberia to take on the huge problems that await the incoming government".

Doss has several years experience of conflict resolution in West Africa. Before taking up the UNMIL post last week, he was deputy head of UN mission in neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire and before that he held the same position in Sierra Leone.

[ENDS]