Ex-soccer star faces election run-off

A FORMER world soccer star faces off against a Harvard-educated woman in a heated brains-versus-brawn run-off tomorrow to decide Liberia’s first post-war president after a quarter century of coups and war.

One-time FIFA player of the year George Weah and former Finance Minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf won first and second place respectively in the October 11 first round, which weeded out 20 other candidates.

Mr Weah took 29% of the vote to Ms Johnson-Sirleaf’s 19%. A simple majority was needed for outright victory.

Mr Weah, with little formal education or experience in politics, is running on a popularity born from soccer stardom that’s kept him untainted by the country’s bloody wars.

Ms Johnson-Sirleaf boasts an Ivy League education and top postings in government and the United Nations, but is handicapped by her association with past failed governments.

A coup in 1980 saw a grim era of strife which ended in 2003 when president Charles Taylor stepped down as rebels advanced on the capital, Monrovia. But the country, once one of Africa’s most prosperous has not recovered. Unemployment runs at 80%.

Since the first round, Mr Weah has been backed by warlords who ran in that vote, including Sekou Conneh, who headed the main rebel group which forced Taylor from power.

Yesterday, Mr Weah flooded his television station with ads trumping his soccer stardom.

“Life is a game, choose the best player,” one said.