Final Election Results Confirm Runoff Poll in Liberia

Posted October 25th, 2011 at 7:15 pm (UTC-5)
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Liberia’s election commissions says final results from the October 11 elections show that none of the presidential candidates won an outright majority.

Officials Tuesday said incumbent President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and her main rival, Winston Tubman, will face off in a second round vote, scheduled for November 8. She won about almost 44 percent of the vote compared to about 33 percent garnered by former justice minister Tubman.

The electoral commission said former warlord Prince Johnson came in third with about 12 percent of the vote. He has said he would support Mrs. Sirleaf’s re-election bid in exchange for a significant role in her government.

Earlier Tuesday, Tubman’s party, the Congress of Democratic Change, accused the electoral body of rigging the first round of voting, saying that the commission’s chairman, James Fromayan, is a Sirleaf supporter.

Party official Jeremiah Robertson said the group will boycott next month’s presidential run-off poll unless Fromayan is replaced.

Observers from the U.S.-based Carter Center and the Economic Community of West African States have said the first round of voting was largely free and fair.

President Sirleaf said the rule of law will determine what happens in the second round of voting, not political demands.