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MONROVIA (Reuters) - Soccer star George Weah took an early lead on Thursday as results trickled in from Liberia's first post-war elections, but he seemed likely to face a run-off with former Finance Minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
With results still coming in slowly from Tuesday's presidential and parliamentary elections, the millionaire former AC Milan striker and his main rival, Harvard-trained economist Johnson-Sirleaf, remained the frontrunners.
Electoral officials and observers said it looked increasingly likely that the presidential poll, the first since the end of a brutal 14-year civil war in Liberia, would have to go to a second round next month. "It seems obvious to me personally that there will be a run-off now tentatively scheduled for November 8," former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, one of 400 international election observers, told reporters.
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National Elections Commission chief Frances Johnson-Morris made the same prediction as she cautioned that final election results could take up to a week. But excitement remained high on the streets of the crumbling capital Monrovia. Crowds gathered around radio sets, sending up a cheer with each new report of fresh gains by Weah or other favourite candidates.
With about 10 percent of votes tallied so far, 39-year-old Weah lead the field of 22 presidential hopefuls with 26.6 percent of the vote, ahead of Johnson-Sirleaf with 16.2 percent. If no candidate gains more than 50 percent, a run-off will be held no more than two weeks after official confirmation of the first round's results. If 66-year-old grandmother Johnson-Sirleaf wins, she would become Africa's first elected female president. |