LIBERIA: Voting cards not guns, the new weapon of choice

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

MONROVIA, 9 Oct 2005 (IRIN) - For years, the gun was the symbol of power in Liberia. Now it’s the voting card.

Liberians head to the polls on Tuesday to pick their first president since the end of a long debilitating civil war, and there is talk of little else on the potholed streets of the capital, Monrovia.

“It’s our chance to turn the page, to say no to war and yes to a future,” said 32-year-old Jose Browne, who earns a living lugging jerry cans of water around the run-down ocean-side city.

George and Ellen are the names on everyone’s lips and both would make history if they won.

Football millionaire George Weah -- whose tens of thousands of supporters brought parts of the capital to a standstill this weekend -- would be the first African to swap the soccer stadium for the presidential palace.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a Harvard-educated grandmother, respected economist and veteran opposition leader, would be the continent’s first elected female head of state.

There is no solid data predicting the outcome of Tuesday’s ballot, but the consensus among diplomats and election-watchers is that these two are the front-runners in the 22-strong race for the presidency.

At political rallies in the closing days of the campaign, only Sirleaf came close to mobilising the numbers that turned out for Weah. Both were streets ahead of other candidates jostling for the top job, who include corporate lawyers, one-time ministers and former leaders of rebel factions.

Some observers say the two favourites reflect the twin faces of modern Africa. Sirleaf is the poster-girl for the educated political establishment; Weah the unifying force for the legions of youth, who make up more than half of the electorate in Liberia.

Aside from the president, voters on Tuesday will also be choosing 30 senators and 64 representatives for the lower house of parliament, as local police units and UN peacekeepers stand guard to ensure a violence-free poll.

Mud and rain no obstacle

More than 1.35 million voters are expected to turn out at some 3,000 polling stations. Roughly 10 percent of these are designated “inaccessible” by the United Nations because they are at least two days walk from the nearest road.

Liberia’s 14-year civil war, which ended just over two years ago, totally wrecked the nation’s infrastructure, reducing roads, bridges and buildings to rubble.

Where no suitable structure has been left standing, election officials have set up polling stations in temporary huts and in some cases even tents, so that people can cast their votes. Ballot papers have been dispatched by boat and helicopter.

However officials are confident of a high turn-out in spite of these logistical challenges.

“We have inaccessible areas… but human beings can still walk there,” Frances Johnson-Morris, the head of Liberia’s electoral commission, told reporters.

“There is such enthusiasm on the part of the electorate, I do not think bad roads or even heavy rain will stop them.”

[ENDS]