MONROVIA, Liberia – At 10 a.m. on Nov. 8, the day of Liberia's runoff election, there were no voters in the polling station in Clara Town, a downtrodden warren of dirt roads and zinc-roofed houses on the outskirts of the capital, Monrovia. The faces of the incumbent, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and her opponent, Winston Tubman, were still on the ballot papers, but amid disorder following a last-gasp boycott by Tubman's Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) party, only Johnson Sirleaf was taking part.
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Violence had erupted the previous day, following a mass protest meeting convened by the opposition CDC at the party's headquarters in the Congo Town area of the capital. The scene was chaotic. Young partisans, clad in grubby white T-shirts, held a bloodied body aloft. "He dead! Police shot him!" they yelled. The air was thick with stinging tear gas, as small pockets of protesters darted for cover. Blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeeping troops appeared to be physically repelling armed Liberian police officers from storming the CDC's headquarters. Two people were confirmed dead, but rumors abound about other killings and just how the violence started.
Under a mango tree not far from the polling place, a large group gathered as I asked about the events of the previous day. The atmosphere was muted and tense in this area, where CDC vice-presidential candidate and football icon George Weah grew up. "We had gathered to commence peaceful march, but there was police blockade set up on the road" said K. Nimely Weah (no relation), an elder in the community who attended the protest. "The UNMIL [U.N. Mission in Liberia] commander was still talking to Ambassador Weah and Counselor Tubman, telling them their complaints would be addressed. Then another group tried to come join us, from a road on the side of the blockade." With a finger he drew the intersection in the dirt. "As soon as they saw them coming, [the police] started firing tear gas at us. Then came bullets. All we were trying to do was peacefully protest Ellen's corrupt election."
But was it really corrupt? "We are pleased to tell the world that the election in Liberia is free, fair, and transparent," declared an emphatic Speciosa Wandira Kazibwe, head of the African Union's election-observation mission, on Oct. 13, two days after the first round of the presidential election. The Carter Center also approved. Under the watchful eyes of 4,800 domestic and international observers, Liberia had just successfully held its second post-conflict presidential election, eight years on from the cessation of its uniquely brutal civil conflict. From a motley crew of 16 candidates, Johnson Sirleaf had garnered 44 percent of the vote. A tight runoff beckoned, with the new Nobel Peace Prize laureate facing down the awkward tag team of Tubman, a former U.N. diplomat and justice minister, and his running mate, Weah. It seemed that the next stage of the election -- though all political debate in Liberia tends toward hyperbole and untruths -- would come off equally peacefully.
The story of how such a widely acclaimed election could descend to killings and empty polling stations provides an intriguing insight into the vulnerability of the democratic process in places like Liberia. As soon as vote counts began to drip out following Oct. 11's first round, it was clear that all had not gone according to plan for Tubman and Weah's CDC party. The landslide they were relying upon winning in the opposition's Monrovia base, due to Weah's cult status in densely populated areas like Clara Town, had not materialized. Johnson Sirleaf had surged ahead. And even while votes were still being tallied, a dangerous election "Plan B" began to emerge.
On Oct. 15, only four days after the first-round election, a vague joint statement was hurriedly released by nine opposition parties. It accused the National Elections Commission (NEC) of altering vote counts in favor of Johnson Sirleaf and declared the results "null and void." The claims were widely derided locally and abroad. News then surfaced that warlord-cum-senator Prince Yormie Johnson, whose National Union for Democratic Progress party took a hefty 11.8 percent of the vote, had thrown his support behind Johnson Sirleaf amid rumors of shady deals. This early endorsement of Johnson Sirleaf, from a candidate whose campaign had been based largely upon vitriolic criticism of her, bred desperation and conspiracy within the opposition ranks. On Oct. 17, Tubman was admitted to the United Nations' hospital in Monrovia to be treated for "malaria." It was widely rumored on the streets of the capital that he had suffered a nervous breakdown.
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