Monrovia — With final results from Liberia's presidential and legislative elections scheduled for release on October 26, the country is preparing for a second round to choose between the two top vote getters in the presidential race, which included 22 contenders.
Barring a last-minute surprise, the names on the ballot when Liberians head to the polls on November 8 will be George Weah, a 39-year-old former international soccer star who attracted support from many of Liberia's youth, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 66, a former finance minister, banker and senior United Nations official, who would become Africa's first elected female head of state if she wins
The two leading campaigns have maintained largely low public profiles. However, an undercurrent of intense negotiations is palpable in political circles in Monrovia. Presidential candidates who attracted significant support in the first round are seeking to leverage those votes for influence with one or both camps. Most attention is focused on Charles Brumskine, who came in third, as well as on Winston Tubman and Varney Sherman, who placed fourth and fifth, respectively. Joseph Korto who placed a distant seventh, has attracted interest because of his strong showing in Nimba County, which with close to 130, 000 voters, is second in size only to Montserado County, which includes this heavily populated capital.
Located in the east, sharing borders with both Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire, Nimba has emerged as a pivotal piece of the ethnic and regional puzzle that will determine the outcome of the second round. When they went to the polls on October 11, Nimba voted overwhelmingly for two locals who had prominent roles in the war. The top vote getter in the county was Prince Y. Johnson, the former leader of the rebel faction known as the Independent National Patriotic Front, who famously presided over the capture and death-by-torture in 1990 of Samuel K. Doe, the strong-man leader of Liberia for a decade after seizing power in a 1980 military coup. The second-largest tally, also in the race for Senate, was received by Adolphus Dolo, who as a high-ranking security aide to former President Charles Taylor, was known as 'General Peanut Butter'.
The scramble for Nimba could be seen as an undercurrent in post-election statements of the two candidates headed for the second round. Weah expended considerable effort last week denying having promised top defense and security jobs to former officials of the Doe government. Last weekend, rumors circulated in Monrovia that Weah, during his final campaign trip to Grand Gedeh, Doe's home county, offered the defense ministry to George Dweh, a former rebel leader who is related to Doe. Another senior security post was said to have been promised to Charles Julu, who led a military raid organized by the Doe army against Nimba County in the early 1980s. The Weah camp denied the reports vociferously, and two newspapers that reported the rumors were censored by the Press Union of Liberia for fomenting tribal sentiments.
The response of the press association and the denials by the Weah camp are understandable; in light of the reaction the reports evoked in Nimba communities in the capital as well as in the county itself. One Nimba political insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue, said community leaders were urging people to remain calm and "to exercise patience as we work with both parties to see how their policies will affect Liberia." The politician said she was however disturbed by "candidate Weah parading in Grand Gedeh wearing T-shirts with the picture of Doe," as published by a local daily early last week.
During the first round, Weah was apparently able to win the backing of former combatants from various former rebel armies throughout the country. Political analysts are watching to see if this following could be diminished if Weah is perceived to have ties to one of the formerly armed groups that terrorized the populace and destroyed the infrastructure. Dweh was an outspoken principal in the rebel group known as MODEL. He was named speaker of Liberia's parliament under the 2003 peace accord that offered government positions to all the warring parties, and earlier this year was suspended from that post after being accused of embezzlement. Weah now has to battle charges that he provided financial backing to MODEL during the fighting that led to Taylor's ouster.
While Weah battled competing rumors, Sirleaf spoke out to counter reports that she supported the creation of a war crimes tribunal right after inauguration to put all former fighters in jail. In an October 20 press conference, Sirleaf said she doesn't favor a tribunal "because that is also going to add to the divide" in the country. She said she supported the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is called for the in 2003 peace accord, adding that "most of the fighters who committed atrocities during the war" could not be held responsible for their actions, because, she said "they were all children."
Sirleaf said that "going after wrongs of the past will not be a priority" and that the country needed to be looking ahead, not backward. "We don't intend to go into people's closets to look for old bones," she said. "We intend to run a clean government, and we will stamp out corruption because we will make sure people get paid living wages and get paid on time."
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Sirleaf has also rejected suggestions that the race now comes down to a choice between a candidate representing Liberia's 'native' population, i.e. Weah, and a descendent of the 'settlers'-the freed slaves from the United States who settled in Liberia in the 19th century and dominated political and economic power for most the country's history. "My father is a Gola from Bomi; my mother is a Kru from Sinoe," she said, "and my grand father on my mother's side was German."
"Even if she were descendant of a settler, who is more Liberian than the rest of us"" commented one Sirleaf supporter, " Only those who have nothing to offer to the national good bring this ethnic issue out as a political tool."
Until the results are officially released, the two campaigns have been shy at taking to the streets. For the first time on Friday, officials from Sirleaf's Unity Party started to congregate at their campaign headquarters on 4th Street in Sinkor. Youth activity at Weah headquarters is growing but is still a far cry from the mega concerts held there early in the campaign. The fact that schools have re-opened throughout the country could affect the second round of the campaigning, since students served as principal participants in rallies for most of the political parties.
