The Economist: A Swedish October surprise

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Liberia at the polls

LIBERIANS have voted in the first domestically run poll since the end of a bloody civil war in 2003. Queues snaked around schools and churches converted into polling stations as eager citizens gathered despite heavy rain on October 11th. UN armoured cars were parked nearby but the atmosphere was overwhelmingly peaceful. National and international observers presided over ballot counts; the official results are due by October 26th. “People want peace, so until now there has been no foul play,” says Atiliean Gibson, a representative for the opposition Congress for Democratic Change.

Sixteen candidates are vying to be president. Preliminary tallies suggest the incumbent, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is in the lead but likely to face a run-off in November against a former diplomat, Winston Tubman, and his charismatic running mate, ex-footballer George Weah. Ms Johnson Sirleaf, a former World Bank official, has achieved a lot during her five-year term in office. She wooed foreign investors and won relief from the country’s debts. ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, last month started exporting iron ore from the west African nation, which is far stabler now than at the last election.

But problems are piling up too. The president recently fired her first-rate auditor-general, John Morlu, who was said to be making headway on graft, a perennial problem. Education and employment prospects for most Liberians remain poor. Public infrastructure has improved somewhat, but most electricity still comes from diesel generators.

Critics of the president say she has become autocratic, pointing out that she ignored the recommendations of a truth and reconciliation commission charged with investigating the civil war. The commission had said she should be barred from public office for 30 years because she once supported Charles Taylor, a warlord and president now on trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for war crimes committed in neighbouring Sierra Leone. Perhaps more importantly, Ms Johnson Sirleaf has not been able to dispel the sense of disenfranchisement felt by many indigenous Liberians. They see themselves as dominated by the descendants of the freed American slaves who founded the country.

Critics charge that Ms Johnson Sirleaf cares too much about her standing abroad and not enough about her own people. Four days before the election the president (as well as another Liberian woman, Leymah Gbowee, and a Yemeni woman, Tawakul Karman) received the Nobel peace prize. The Swedish prize committee lauded the 72-year-old for being Africa’s first elected female head of state but seemingly ignored her earlier promise to stand for only one term. That is why the Nobel laurels will have gained Ms Johnson Sirleaf few extra votes. Many see it as further proof of the gulf between her gilded international reputation and the continuing poverty of her many young compatriots.

from the print edition | Middle East and Africa

 Source: http://www.economist.com/node/21532332?fsrc=scn/tw/te/ar/aswedishoctobersurprise