Liberia: Incumbent Sirleaf Takes Early Lead as Vote Count Continues

Preliminary results from the Liberia's presidential election held on Tuesday show incumbent President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf leading her 15 rivals.

Announcing the results Thursday from just over 16 percent of more than 4,000 polling stations, Liberia's National Electoral Commission says President Sirleaf has more than 44 percent of the vote. Former justice minister Winston Tubman has more than 26 percent, while former rebel leader and current Senator Prince Johnson is running third with about 13 percent.

Vote counting is expected to continue through the weekend, and complete results may not be known for some time as the electoral commission has until October 26 to make a final count.  If none of the candidates wins an outright majority, there will be a run-off election between the top two finishers November 8.

Johnson Sirleaf is seeking another 6-year term against her closest contender Winston Tubman, a former UN diplomat.

This is Liberia’s second presidential election since end of the 14 year-long civil war in 2003, first to be conducted by the country, as the previous one was run by the UN.

About 1.8 million voters were registered for the presidential and general elections where also they are expected to choose members of the House of Senate and House of Representatives.

International poll observers have termed the exercise as peaceful “without incident”, with heavy police and some 8000 UN peacekeepers deployed across the country to prevent any violence. President Sirleaf has praised voters for their patience and discipline. “I feel so good for the Liberian people, they have demonstrated a certain level of political maturity.” She said that she will accept the will of the Liberian people in the outcome of the elections.

Sirleaf, a former World Bank economist and this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, an award she shares with a fellow Liberian women’s rights campaigner and a Yemeni activist, became first Africa’s first female elected head of state in 2005. Tubman, nephew of Liberia’s longest-serving President William Tubman and a former UN envoy to Somalia is seen as the immediate challenger after teaming up with former football star George Weah who came second in 2005.

Liberia’s economy has significantly grown under Sirleaf government including building of the once wrecked infrastructure and getting the country’s $5bn debt wiped out. Though internationally acclaimed, Sirleaf is said to be less popular at home for her not doing enough to improve lives of common people.

Mrs. Sirleaf has also been criticised for backing former President Charles Taylor when he begun his rebellion in 1989 but later fell out. Taylor is currently on trial for alleged war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Nearly 80 percent of Liberians are unemployed, where most live below a dollar a day, with rampant crime and corruption. Liberia is Africa’s oldest republic, founded in 1847 by freed US slaves.



Tripoli, Libya

Libya’s Interim NTC Warned of Abuses

Rights group Amnesty International has called for Libya’s interim National Transitional Council (NTC) to end arbitrary detention and abuses of inmates detained in recent months. Following a report based on interviewing some 300 prisoners in 11 detention facilities in and around the capital, Tripoli, between 18 August and 21 September, the London-based group said it unearthed evidence of torture and abuses of suspected Col Gaddafi loyalists, soldiers and suspected mercenaries.



The report dubbed Detention Abuses Staining the New Libya says that researchers had found torture instruments in one of the detention facilities and had heard whipping and screamings in another prison.

Sub-Saharan immigrants suspected to be Gaddafi’s mercenaries were particularly targeted in the abuses. Two guards from separate facilities had admitted to abusing inmates to get information.

The NTC has pledged to look into the claims, saying it is committed to upholding human rights and bringing reforms into the country’s justice systems. NTC spokesman Jalal al-Galal said the council’s chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil will not tolerate abuse of prisoners and has made it clear he will investigate any such allegations.

Elsewhere unconfirmed reports claim that Col Gaddafi’s son Mutassim has been captured. Colonel Abdullah Nakera National Transitional Council (NTC) official told Reuters news agency that Motassim Gaddafi was arrested on Wednesday and was being held at the council’s eastern stronghold of Benghazi.

A senior military commander inside Sirte said only loyalist fighters close to Motassim were captured, denying reports of him being in custody. Motassim served as a national security adviser during his father’s reign. If confirmed, his capture would bring major breakthrough to the provisional

government seeking to take over the two last bastions under Gaddafi’s fighters.