Weah demands halt to count

UN FORCES fired tear gas at angry supporters of Liberian soccer star George Weah yesterday after they stoned police and marched to the US embassy to demand a halt to counting in an election Weah says was rigged.

Police from the UN peacekeeping force also used batons to disperse hundreds of Weah supporters who broke through a line of Liberian riot police near the US embassy building.

A 20-year-old woman was bleeding from the head after being hit by a UN policeman, witnesses said, provoking a furious reaction from some in the crowd, who chanted “Wicked UN.”

Earlier, Weah supporters chanted “No Weah, no peace”, “No Weah, no president” and hurled stones at riot police in front of the National Elections Commission (NEC).

With 97% of polling stations’ votes counted from Tuesday’s run-off ballot, Harvard-trained former Finance Minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has an unassailable 59.4%.

Weah and his Congress for Democratic Change party insist the vote was rigged and have filed an application to the country’s Supreme Court to try to stop the counting process.

But the court told Weah’s campaign team it could not consider the complaint until the NEC had investigated it.

“If the NEC rules and we are not satisfied then we have to go back to the Supreme Court,” said Steve Quoah, campaign spokesman for Weah, adding they would have five days after the NEC ruling to appeal.

NEC chief Frances Johnson-Morris said she had not been instructed to stop counting.

International observers have said Tuesday’s run-off, which followed an inconclusive first round last month in which Weah came first, was generally free and fair.