Liberians choose between brains and brawn

Liberians are today choosing between a wealthy international soccer star and a Harvard-educated female politician vying for the country’s top job in a brains-versus-brawn presidential run-off that many hope will herald a new era after a quarter century of coups and war.

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

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

Johnson-Sirleaf boasts a Harvard University education and has a resume full of top postings in government and the United Nations, but is handicapped by her association with past failed governments.

“It’s going to be a tough battle,” said Liberian journalist Raymond Zarbay. “Whoever wins will have to take Liberia from where it is. Can either one do it? That’s the million dollar question.”

Liberians began voting when polling stations opened as scheduled at 8am.

Founded by freed American slaves in the mid-1800s, Africa’s first republic was once among its most prosperous, bolstered by fields of diamonds and a vast ocean of tropical forests rich in hardwood timber and rubber.

A coup in 1980, which saw Cabinet ministers stripped, tied to poles and shot on the beach, heralded a grim era of strife that ended in 2003 when warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor stepped down as advancing rebels shelled the capital.

Despite the peace that came with the war’s end, little has improved.

Burned-out, bullet-splattered buildings still dot the low skyline, along with others sprouting weeds that were never completed.

The capital, where chaotic jumbles of power lines hang low across the streets, has no power mains, relying almost exclusively on generators, candles and lanterns. Monrovia’s only functioning traffic light functions no more.

Unemployment is 80%.

Today, with Taylor watching from exile in Nigeria, Liberia’s fragile peace is overseen by a 15,000-strong UN force backing the transitional, caretaker government of Gyude Bryant.

The peacekeepers made their presence on the streets more visible in the run-up to Tuesday’s vote. On Sunday, scores of them manned tented checkpoints in sky-blue baseball caps, surrounded by sandbags and white armoured personnel carriers.

In New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the historic vote offers the Liberian people “an opportunity to elect a president to lead the country into a new era of peace, democracy and prosperity,” UN deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.

Annan also assured Liberians that UN peacekeepers, working closely with Liberia’s security agencies, “will maintain a safe and secure environment, to enable them to cast their votes without fear of intimidation or violence.”

In the first round, Weah took 29% of the vote to Johnson-Sirleaf’s 19%. A simple majoity had been needed for outright victory.

About 1.3 million of Liberia’s 3 million people were registered to vote in today’s poll, which were being monitored by thousands of international and Liberian electoral observers.

A brief week of campaigning wrapped up at midnight on Sunday with thousands of supporters from the rival camps rallying at their respective headquarters and filling the main roads, waving arms in the air and cheering.

Since the first round, Weah has gained backing from warlords who ran in the October vote, including Sekou Conneh, who headed the main rebel group which forced Taylor from power, and 1990s faction leader Alhaji Kromah.

On Sunday, Weah flooded his personal station, Clar TV, named after his wife, with ads trumping his football stardom. He played for AC Milan, Chelsea and Manchester City, among others, during his career.

“Life is a game, choose the best player. George Manneh Weah for president,” said one. On billboards, Weah promised “Liberia shall rise again.”

Weah has appealed to Liberia’s poor youth, but not to all.

“He jumps from hitting a ball to come here and be president? No. He’s not educated. He’ll take iberia backward,” said 32-year-old Larry Thomas, a Johnson-Sirleaf supporter selling candy on a Monrovia street. “Ellen is qualified, educated, outspoken, intellectual. Only she can take Liberia forward.”

Across the street at a jewellery shop, several Weah supporters spoke out.

“Weah is the only one who can unify Liberia. He can talk to the fighters, everybody,” said shopkeeper Anthony Mulbah, 39. “Ellen has already worked in government. She never did anything good, never brought any development.”

Next door at a shoe shop, 32-year-old Ibrahim Yaffa said this: “We just pray that whoever wins, they bring us some peace.”