Former rebel leader to run for president

MONROVIA - The leader of Liberia's one-time main rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) Sekou Conneh, told IRIN on Wednesday that under pressure from former fighters, he will stand as president in landmark October polls.

"My former fighters in LURD and other supporters from across Liberia have put me under pressure to stand as a presidential candidate. They said they would support me to the fullest, because they want me to be president so as to better cater to them in the future," Conneh said.

Though he has no experience in politics, 44 year old Conneh is raring to go and has already formed his political party named the Progressive Democratic Party.

"I am going to run on this party ticket. We have already obtained a preliminary clearance from the National Elections Commission to canvass for membership across the country and we are almost completing the process - after which we will be formerly certificated by the commission", Conneh said proudly.

But on the streets of the capital Monrovia, Conneh - who has also worked as a tax collector and used car dealer - was widely criticised for his decision.

"As for me, it will not be good for reconciliation for Sekou to run as president," said Varfee Kamara, a former LURD commander who now has a business importing Nigerian DVDs.

"The purpose of LURD when we formed it was not to seek political power, but to create an avenue where all Liberians could elect a popular government that will reconcile all of us," he said.

Conneh was a founding member and leader of LURD since it was established with the backing of Guinea in 1999, with the expressed purpose of knocking then President Charles Taylor out of power.

"It is a joke for Sekou Conneh to say he wants to be president. After going through 14 years of civil war? To think that we should put another former warlord in power? No way, it will not happen!" Cecelia Wreh a market trader said.

Liberia descended into a brutal civil war in 1990 with Taylor leading a guerrilla campaign against the government. Elections in 1997 were billed as an end to the fighting and many Liberians voted in warlord Taylor to do just that.

Instead, Taylor continued to propagate fighting both in Liberia and neighbouring Sierra Leone until in 2003 former ally the United States identified Taylor as an obstacle to peace and among others applied pressure for him to take exile in Nigeria.

Optimistic of victory, Conneh is adamant that he won't be anything like his archrival.

"When elected president, I am not going to be like Taylor and people should be appreciative that I Sekou Damate Conneh am transforming from being a factional leader to a political leader," he told IRIN.

Critics of Conneh say that the real leader of LURD was his estranged wife Aisha, a close confidante and adviser to President Lansana Conte of Guinea.

Aisha is said to have magical powers and was able to warn Conte of a 1996 coup attempt before it happened.

But unlike her husband, Aisha is not thought to have political ambitions - for the moment at least - and remains in Guinea where she is keeping a low profile.