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Liberia Voting for First Postwar President Liberia Voting for First Postwar President in Runoff Between Soccer Star, Harvard-Educated Woman By TODD PITMAN The Associated Press MONROVIA, Liberia - Liberia voted Tuesday to choose its first postwar president in a heated runoff pitting a soccer star who dropped out of high school against the country's Harvard-educated top female politician.
With U.N. helicopters buzzing over the bombed-out capital, many hoped the vote would herald an era of peace after decades of conflict that displaced a third of the West African nation's 3 million people and left up to 200,000 dead.
"We've been killing each other too much. There's gonna be a change in Liberia this time around," 27-year-old university student Saviour Dixon said after voting at a bullet-splattered warehouse.
One-time player of the year George Weah and former Finance Minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf finished first and second in the Oct. 11 first round, which weeded out 20 other candidates, including warlords and rebel leaders.
Weah's ascent from Monrovia's slums to international soccer stardom has had great appeal in a poor country short on heroes. He has no experience in government, but that's seen as a plus by many in a country long ruled by coup leaders and warlords.
Johnson-Sirleaf boasts a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University and has a resume full of top postings in government and the United Nations. But her role in past failed governments is seen as a drawback by some. If successful, she would become Africa's first elected female president.
Alan Doss, head of the U.N. Mission in Liberia, declared the vote "peaceful and transparent," though U.N. troops arrested five people for minor incidents.
"Today's runoff election offered the people of Liberia an opportunity to leave behind the conflict that has devastated this country for so long and turn the page on a very dark chapter in their history," Doss said.
After the polls closed, electoral workers began counting ballots by the light of fluorescent lanterns, required because the city's electricity supply was destroyed during fighting. Initial results are expected within days.
Before voting began at Monrovia's Seventh Day Adventist School, six electoral workers gathered in a circle and prayed.
Augustin Forkpa was first in line to cast his ballot. Marking his choice behind a white cardboard box, he made the sign of the cross against his chest and dropped his ballot into a clear plastic container.
"We're hoping for a better future; we've been suffering too long," said Forkpa, a Finance Ministry worker who voted for Johnson-Sirleaf. "We hope this election will do us something better."
Up the road at a seaside cultural center, Weah, escorted by blue-helmeted U.N. troops and bodyguards, marched to the front of the line, cast his ballot and was immediately mobbed by a throng of reporters.
Answering questions in English, French and Italian, Weah said that if elected, "My first priority will be peace bringing people together to sit down at the table and see how better we can move Liberia forward." His voice was hoarse after days of campaigning.
Dressed in white down to his shoes, Weah escorted his mother to a neighboring polling booth before driving off in a dark blue sedan with tinted windows.
Johnson-Sirleaf traveled to the wartime rebel stronghold of Tubmanburg, 50 miles west of Monrovia, to cast her vote.
"All Liberians should go out and vote their conscience for the betterment of their lives and their country," she told reporters. "I'm very confident that the Liberian people will vote for me."
Founded by freed American slaves in the mid-1800s, Africa's first republic was once among its most prosperous, rich in diamonds, forests and rubber.
A coup in 1980, which saw Cabinet ministers stripped, tied to poles and shot on the beach, kicked off years of strife. Johnson-Sirleaf was among the few Cabinet ministers to survive that post-coup purge, though she was jailed and forced to flee the country.
In 2003, warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor stepped down as advancing rebels shelled the capital.
Liberia today is a shambles and unemployment is 80 percent. Helping keep the peace is a 15,000-strong U.N. force, deployed to support Gyude Bryant's caretaker government.
About 1.3 million people were registered to vote, but turnout appeared lower than the first round, in which Weah took 28 percent to Johnson-Sirleaf's 20 percent.
Associated Press writer Jonathan Paye-Layleh in Monrovia and photographer Pewee Flomoku in Tubmanburg contributed to this report.
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