MONDAY, 5.30PM:
CHARLES TAYLOR, a former Liberian warlord and leader of the National Patriotic Party (NPP), has taken an early lead following Saturday’s presidential elections.
According to preliminary results released on Sunday night by the independent electoral commission’s chairman, Henry Andrews, the NPP polled 62,38% of the total 29 483 votes so far declared from 250 voting stations. Andrews added that Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of the Unity Party, Taylor’s closest rival, took 18,1% of the declared vote. Thirteen presidential candidates, including three former warlords, are in the race.
To win the presidency, a candidate must clinch 51% of the total ballots cast, while the 90-member bi-cameral legislature will be elected on proportial representation based on the number of votes receved by the party.
The polls, which aim to end Liberia’s seven-year civil war started by Taylor in 1989, are the final stage of a peace plan drawn up by the economic community of West African states (Ecowas), which has a peacekeeping force in Liberia.