Election season in Liberia

Liberians elect a President every six years.  On Oct 11, they will have only their second Presidential election since their two civil wars that killed hundreds of thousands of people in this country.  Elections are always a nervous time in West Africa.  Cote d'Ivoire just came out of a civil war this year over election results from last year.  Warlords and "generals" from the Liberian Civil Wars are now Senators and Congressmen in the government.  Our drivers know who they are and will point them out around town saying "That man in the Mercedes killed thousands of people"  So everyone is nervous that tensions, although muted for six years, are still just below the surface.

The second civil war ended in 2003, with the landing of US Marines and Nigerian troops.  The President at the time, the warlord Charles Taylor, eventually was exiled to Nigeria before being turned over to the UN.  He currently faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and is in custody in The Hague.  See the movie "Blood Diamond". 

That was the last President.  The current President was elected in 2005 in the first election after the second Civil War.  She is Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (EJS), with degrees from the Univ. of Colorado, Univ of Wisconsin, and Harvard.  She has worked at the World Bank and Citibank, and placed a distant second in the Presidential race to Charles Taylor when he was elected in 1997.  She opposed the government and escaped Liberia during the civil wars. In 2005, her biggest challenger was George Weah, the most famous soccer player in the history of Liberia.  In fact, in the first round of voting, the uneducated Weah got the most votes, and EJS came in second.  However, in the run-off, she won the most votes and became President.  She is one of the few women leading a country in the world, and the first one in Africa. She is an international celebrity but there are questions in Liberia whether she can win re-election.

Liberia has a long way to go to recover from the two civil wars.  EJS has done a lot to bring the international community in to Liberia and begin investing again.  I am here for the oil exploration licenses that were granted soon after the end of the war, for example.  For the everyday Liberian, though, the trickle-down is slow.  This new round of elections have 27 people vying for President.  One of EJSs top challengers is Winston Tubman.  He, too, is Western educated at Cambridge and Harvard, but his biggest asset is his Vice-Presidential nominee: George Weah the soccer player.  Weah has distinguished himself as a humanitarian in the last six years, and also now has a degree from DeVry University, as seen on TV.

This isn't just a history lesson.  It is rare to be in any country during elections, and this one is certainly unique.  EJS and her party have posters, banners and billboards plastered EVERYWHERE.  They obviously have the most money.  Their slogan is "Da Their Area", a phrase lifted from a popular Liberian song that shouts out locations with the response "Da Ma Area".  For their posters, they will name areas of improvement and claim "Da Their Area".  They also have signs around saying "Monkey be Working, Let Baboon Wait Small".  This is an allusion to a Liberian phrase "Monkey Working, Baboon Draw" that refers to the poor working hard for peanuts while the rich enjoy themselves.  Political rallies are going on around the country.  A small one for one of the lesser candidates passed by me yesterday on the street.  It was an excuse for a parade, with drums and chanting and dancing and waving.  They waved at my camera, glad for the attention,  and I waved back.  However, violence does break out if a rally from one party passes the headquarters of another party.  I didn't stick around long.  Here's a couple of photos of the banners for Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.