(Chicago Sun-Times) Liberia has made history by electing Africa’s first female president. After coming in 10 percentage points behind international soccer star George Weah in the Oct. 11 election, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, 66, a Harvard-educated grandmother and former United Nations Development Program director for Africa, World Bank official and Liberian minister of finance, surprisingly won the Nov. 8 runoff election with nearly 60 percent of the vote.
Weah’s Congress for Democratic Change formally filed a complaint with the National Election Commission claiming that several ballot boxes were stuffed in favor of Johnson-Sirleaf’s Unity Party before the runoff.
As an international election observer to the Nov. 8 national election, I can verify that the election was ”free and fair” and ”free from fear”; however, there were several anomalies not unlike elections in other countries. It is probable that there were irregularities. While Weah’s party might have a valid claim that merits serious investigation, his defeat was so decisive that a few stuffed ballot boxes would not affect the outcome. A formal investigation by the elections commission is under way, and a hearing will likely be held next week.
The victory of Johnson-Sirleaf, also known to Liberians as the ”Iron Lady,” can partly be attributed to her Unity Party’s investing heavily in voter education, particularly for the runoff, while Weah’s party appears to have been ill-prepared for the faceoff. While the Unity Party’s political base is made up of all facets of Liberian society, those who voted in the runoff — educated Liberians — supported Johnson-Sirleaf. Other important factors that affected the outcome included poor voter education generally; voter displeasure with long and tension-filled lines (in the rainy season) during the Nov. 8 election, and low turnout among Weah’s primary political base, young men. Johnson- Sirleaf was also a more effective campaigner because she traveled in a helicopter; Weah braved Liberia’s horrid roads, campaigning in a flashy Hummer.
As president, Johnson-Sirleaf will be confronted by numerous challenges, including a population in destitute poverty with an average income of $130 a year; nearly 80 percent illiteracy and unemployment rates; no electricity or running water; extremely poor roads; no viable private sector; no viable transport links or manufacturing capacity. There is the reality that Liberia’s primary exports, including diamonds and timber industries, still are being stifled by U.N. sanctions. Johnson-Sirleaf’s ability and approach to reintegrate more than 10,000 combatants back into Liberian society while simultaneously unifying a country deeply divided along ethnic and political lines will also be formidable tasks.
Johnson-Sirleaf’s past posting as finance minister in the elitist administration of William Tolbert, which was removed by a popular revolt in 1980, raises concerns about her ability to represent all Liberians. She will also have to deal with the Taylor factor. Former warlord and exiled president Charles Taylor rests comfortably in Nigeria. Johnson-Sirleaf’s connection to Taylor’s political party, the National Patriotic Party, raises serious character-related concerns given the support she has received from the NPP.
Taylor’s influence in Liberia has been curbed by the adoption this year of a U.N. Security Council resolution that authorizes the 15,000 troops in the U.N. Mission in Liberia to detain and transfer Taylor to Sierra Leone, where he has been indicted for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious crimes, if he returns to Liberia. My primary concern rests with Johnson-Sirleaf’s ability to control the security apparatus given Liberia’s staunch patriarchal culture; refashion a corrupt and ailing civil service and develop a democratic political culture in which the rule of law is supreme. As the first woman to be elected president in Africa, her mere presence will shine a ray of hope in Liberia and Africa that will likely generate critical international assistance and inspire women in Africa, the continent’s most precious resources, to enter Africa’s male-dominated political space.
