Presidential election in Liberia 2011

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Winner of the first round of the county elections

The first round of presidential elections in Liberia 2011 took place on October 11th and a runoff on November 9th, 2011. It was the 50th presidential election in the West African state of Liberia , the oldest republic in Africa. The election received special international attention because the ruling president and candidate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf received the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize a few days before the election . Some observers saw this close proximity to the presidential election as undue interference in the election by the Nobel Prize Committee .

Johnson Sirleaf received the most votes on October 11 with a good 40%, but had to go to the runoff because she would have needed a majority of the votes to win in the first round. Winston Tubman , who came second with a good 30% , was chairman of the country's largest opposition party, Congress for Democratic Change and nephew of William S. Tubman , President of Liberia from 1944 to 1971, withdrew from the runoff election because of alleged fraud in the first round, so that Johnson Sirleaf ran without a candidate and emerged as the winner of the runoff election with a good 90% of the votes cast.

Elections to the House of Representatives and half of the Senate seats also took place at the time of the first ballot . The final results should be announced on October 26, 2011, in fact, officially confirmed results were only available on November 15, 2011.

Ballot boxes for the three simultaneous elections on October 11, 2011

Unrest before the runoff election and boycott

Although international observers had called the first round of the elections fair, the runner-up Winston Tubman made allegations of election fraud. A few days before the election, he declared that he would boycott the runoff election. Both representatives of the United Nations and the USA had described the allegation of election fraud as unfounded and unsuccessfully urged Tubman to refrain from boycotting.

A large demonstration by his supporters the day before the run-off election led to riots, the police shot into the crowd and several people were killed. Johnson Sirleaf ran unopposed over Tubman's withdrawal. Since the ballot papers had already been printed, it could still be found there and could therefore also be ticked. The turnout in the runoff election was only about half that of the first ballot, which Tubman and his party saw as their success.

The candidates

A total of 16 candidates ran for election. Since the illiteracy rate among the adult population of Liberia is around 30%, photos of the candidates were on the ballot papers:

In mid-August, the electoral commission announced that it would not allow the majority of these candidates to stand for election because they had not nominated a runner-up, but it did not carry out this announcement.

After Johnson Sirleaf and Tubman, the former warlord Prince Johnson was in third place in the first round in favor of the electorate and so he seemed to have the role of "kingmaker".

  • Prince Johnson was one of the warlords of the Liberian Civil War , best known for a video showing ex-President Samuel Doe being tortured to death by his supporters in his presence.
  • Johnson Sirleaf , who has been president of the country for six years, was supported not only by her own party, the Unity Party, but also by Liberia's oldest party, the True Whig Party .
  • Winston Tubman, on the other hand, found the support of George Weah , FIFA World Player of the Year 1995, who only lost to Johnson Sirleaf in the runoff election in the 2005 presidential election. Tubman had made him his runner-up and was running as a candidate for his party Congress for Democratic Change. In 2005 he was still a member of the National Democratic Party of Liberia and received 9.2% of the vote in the presidential elections as its candidate and then changed party membership several times.

Results

Candidate Political party 1 round 2nd round
be right % be right %
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Unity party 530.020 43.9 607.618 90.7
Winston Tubman Congress for Democratic Change 394,370 32.7 62.207 9.3
Yormie Johnson National Union for Democratic Progress 139,786 11.6  
Charles Brumskine Liberty Party 65,800 5.5
Kennedy Sandy Liberia Transformation Party 13,612 1.1
Gladys Beyan Grassroot Democratic Party of Liberia 12,740 1.1
Togba-Nah Tipoteh Freedom Alliance Party of Liberia 7,659 0.6
Dew Mayson National Democratic Coalition 5 819 0.5
Manjerngie Ndebe Liberia Reconstruction Party 5,746 0.5
Simeon Freeman Movement for Progressive Change 5,559 0.5
Marcus Roland Jones Victory for Change Party 5,305 0.4
James Guseh Citizens Unification Party 5,025 0.4
Hananiah Zoe Liberia Empowerment Party 4,463 0.4
Chea Cheapoo Progressive People's Party 4,085 0.3
James Chelley Original Congress Party of Liberia 4,008 0.3
Jonathan A. Mason Union of Liberian Democrats 2,645 0.2
Invalid 82,074 6.4
total 1,288,716 100
voter turnout 71.64% 38.6%

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.taz.de/Wahlen-in-Liberia/!79959/ accessed on October 15, 2011
  2. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 15, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.afriquejet.com
  3. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from April 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 18, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / necliberia.org
  4. ↑ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45190391/ns/world_news-africa/#.TseVlfIV20K, accessed on November 18
  5. ↑ http://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2011-11/stichwahl-liberia-unruhen accessed on November 18, 2011
  6. ↑ http://www.taz.de/Stichwahl-in-Liberia/!81582/ accessed on November 18
  7. ↑ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45190391/ns/world_news-africa/#.TseVlfIV20K, accessed on November 18
  8. ↑ http://allafrica.com/stories/201108190373.html accessed October 15, 2011
  9. ↑ http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/magazine/95493/prince-johnson-liberia?passthru=MGVmMDgxZTYwMGIxN2E2NmY5OTQ3MThjN2NlNGU3ZTE accessed on October 15, 2011
  10. ↑ TWP Endorses Ellen's 2nd Term ( Memento from September 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ http://www.taz.de/Wahlen-in-Liberia/!79959/ accessed on October 15, 2011
  12. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from April 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 18, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / necliberia.org
  13. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from April 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 18, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / necliberia.org
  14. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from April 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 18, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / necliberia.org