JOHNSON-SIRLEAF
MONROVIA, (Reuters):
FORMER FINANCE Minister, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, won Liberia's presidential run-off, becoming the first woman to be elected head of state of an African country, the National Elections Commission (NEC) said yesterday.
The commission said official voting results from the Nov. 8 run-off showed the Harvard-trained World Bank economist had beaten soccer millionaire George Weah by winning 59.4 per cent of the valid votes, compared to Weah's 40.6 per cent.
"Consequently, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, having received more than 50 per cent of the valid votes cast from November 8, is hereby declared the winner of the presidential election," NEC chairwoman Frances Johnson-Morris announced at an official ceremony in the capital Monrovia.
STILL INVESTIGATING
Liberia's electoral authorities confirmed Johnson-Sirleaf's win even though they were still investigating a formal complaint from Weah, that the polls were fraudulent.
Supporters of the former AC Milan striker staged street protests last week, some of which turned violent.
International observers had praised the elections, the first since the end of a 14-year civil war in the West African state, as free and fair. Several hundred foreign observers and 15,000 United Nations troops and police supervised the polls.
U.N. peacekeepers backed by armoured vehicles, guarded checkpoints in Monrovia on Wednesday around the Centennial Pavilion building where the final election results were announced.
