AFRICA/LIBERIA - Presidential elections second round. Catholic Bishops urge electors to vote according to conscience

Tuesday, 8 November 2005

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Monrovia (Fides Service)- “The second round of presidential elections is taking place today 8 November in a climate of serenity without incidents” said local Catholic church sources in Monrovia capital of Liberia. After the first round on 11 October (see Fides 11 and 13 October 2005) Liberians now have to choose between two candidates, former footballer George Weah and economist Ms Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
“In a statement read in churches on Sunday 6 November the Catholic Bishops of Liberia urged people to vote according to conscience and to avoid disorder” the sources said.
“We hope things will remain calm after the winner is announced. Liberia is still feeling the effects of a bloody civil war and a good part of the young population recalls nothing but war” the sources said. “The first round of voting was without incidents and the climate of this second vote appears to be the same. This good behaviour is proof of Liberia’s maturity and is a positive surprise for foreign observers”.
Some say former footballer George Weah is more popular than a Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf who stood for presidency in 1997 but came second to Charles Taylor who at the end of the civil accepted to go into exile Nigeria where he is today and is wanted for crimes against humanity.
Although Weah has no political experience he is very popular with the young who see him as a symbol of the nation untainted by the civil war. During the war he sent money home to assist war victims and he paid for many young Liberians to study in the United States. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has a Harvard degree and her supporters say she is the person most qualified to lead the country’s economic reconstruction and reconciliation. Finance minister in the government led by William Tolbert in the 1980a and then an official of the United Nations and the World Bank if elected, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf would be the first women head of state not only in Liberia but in the whole continent. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 8/11/2005 righe 32 parole 414)