Liberia's Nobel laureate and incumbent president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, fought for her political survival on Tuesday as voting got under way in the struggling west African democracy.
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A Liberian woman holds up her voter's card while waiting to vote in Tuesday's presidential election at a polling station in Feefee, Bomi County.
The country's presidential vote is the second since the end of its 14-year civil war and marks a crucial step in Liberia's long climb out of chaos. Despite an early thunderstorm, polling centers were jammed with voters who cast ballots peacefully, locals said. The government was expected to begin announcing results Tuesday night, after polling stations closed.
Liberian voters are involved in a massive image makeover. Until recently, the country was a battleground for child soldiers. The country is now growing more than 6% a year, and has become a target for multinational investment. Former child soldiers now make up a bulk of Liberia's adult population, although an estimated eight out of 10 working-age people in the country still can't find jobs.
"Everybody's tired of war," said Sam Mitchell, president of Liberia's Business Association.
Ms. Johnson Sirleaf, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday with two other women, headed to her ancestral village—two hours from the capital—to vote. A former World Bank loan officer, she is seeking a second six-year term, after earlier vowing to step down after one. Despite Liberia's problems—unemployment, corruption and poverty—she has asked voters to remain patient.
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"Don't change the pilot when the plane hasn't even landed yet," said a campaign sign at the recently renovated airport.
But while Ms. Johnson Sirleaf is credited with reviving growth and bringing back investors, her critics have assailed her administration. Her chief opposition, led by former justice minister Winston Tubman, spent the final days of the campaign arguing that she should be tried for crimes against humanity. In 2009, she told Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission that she contributed $10,000 in 1990 to militia leader Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front for humanitarian relief.
"She's a warmonger," Mr. Tubman told the British Broadcasting Corp. hours after she won the Nobel prize on Friday. "I did more to stop the war than she did because she was in for continuing the war. And now that the war has stopped she wants to continue on top of the country as though she is some liberator."
Ms. Johnson Sirleaf's spokeswoman didn't respond to requests to comment.
Her term marks Liberia's most peaceful period since 1980, when a coup by Samuel Doe, a former army sergeant, ended 160 years of rule by descendants of American slaves. Civil war ensued. From 1989 to 2003, child militias fought for control of the country's diamond mines and timber fields. By the time of Ms. Johnson Sirleaf's 2005 election, diamond, iron ore and timber exports had come to a halt, 500,000 Liberians had fled their homes and 250,000 more had died.
Ms. Johnson Sirleaf has since restored the country's mineral industry, bringing in major investors such as ArcellorMittal SA and Chevron Corp.
The opposition has sought to make the vote a referendum on her early support for Mr. Taylor, the rebel leader whose fighters kidnapped, drugged and drafted children. He is now on trial at the International Court of Justice, where he faces 17 counts of crimes against humanity. A verdict is expected by the end of this year.
Analysts aren't ruling out his bid to re-enter the political arena if the charges don't stick. That could throw a wrench into a possible second round of elections, which is scheduled for Nov. 8 if no candidate achieves a simply majority in Tuesday's vote.
"This idea that he'll be locked up for decades might not happen," said Africa analyst Alex Vines at London research group Chatham House. "Charles Taylor may yet try and re-enter Liberian politics."
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