Supporters of Liberian football hero George Weah gathered to protest yesterday as his rival Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was set to make history by becoming Africa's first female president.
While she refrained from declaring victory, preferring to wait until the final results were released by the National Elections Commission, Johnson-Sirleaf called herself "confident" and "ready" to inherit the mantle and the tasks of rebuilding the failed state.
"When 100 percent of the votes are in, I will go before the Liberian people and thank them for their support and their trust," she said late on Thursday, moments after results from 90.8 percent of polling precincts had been reported, giving her an insurmountable 59.1 percent majority.
"I am confident, I am pleased, I am ready and I thank the Liberian people for choosing me," said the Harvard-educated banker and economist, who has three decades of government and international experience.
After coming second to Weah out of a pack of 22 candidates in the Oct. 11 first round, Johnson-Sirleaf surged ahead in the final two weeks of before Tuesday's run-off vote, waging an aggressive media campaign.
A statement from her Unity Party attributed the win to "grassroots mobilization," which included doorstepping voters across northern Nimba county, Liberia's second largest, which she won by a three-to-one margin.
But according to Weah's Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), her success was based on fraud which included ballot tampering and ballot-box stuffing.
CDC supporters around the country were urged over Weah's King FM radio station to gather yesterday for a "peaceful demonstration in protest against the manner in which the elections were conducted."
But some of the former FIFA footballer of the year's young fans spoke belligerently as hundreds of them gathered at the CDC headquarters in Monrovia to march to the NEC offices.
Jo Akway, 24, told a reporter, "Only George Weah will bring peace in this country, anything out of that will be a disaster. We will get in the street and challenge anybody who wants to stand on our way."
Rich Lieu, 18, added, "We have been cheated and we are ready to do anything to bring justice to our party."
The rallies were to follow a meeting between Weah and the International Contact Group on Liberia (ICGL) of mediators who have shepherded the country through the process to end decades of misrule and conflict.
A host of international observers declared Tuesday's elections to be peaceful, though most refrained from anointing them with the coveted "free and fair" label until all results were in.
The Economic Community of West African States was the most enthusiastic, calling it "generally peaceful, free, fair and transparent." A joint statement by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the Carter Center, whose observers met on Thursday with Weah and his advisors, was more circumspect, with an overall assessment that was "generally positive."
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