Liberia: Fears of voter fatigue

2005-11-07 21:05

Monrovia - Electoral enthusiasm in Liberia seems to have waned going into Tuesday's presidential run-off, prompting fears of low turnout, though many are just ready for the campaign to be over so as to begin the real work of rebuilding the war-torn country.

"I am impatiently waiting for the elections to end. We need lots to be done in this country," said Arthur Qweh, who, as is his Monday morning custom, was debating politics on a downtown corner in the capital Monrovia.

"We have been waiting for a new era for so long; I really want to see who the Lord has destined to be the captain of our new ship," chimed in Edison Bargoe, another street-corner pundit.

Footballing giant George Weah holds a 10-point lead over Harvard-educated banker Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, having bested 20 other presidential candidates in October 11 polls among Liberia's 1.35 million registered voters, who turned out at a rate of 75%.

Both have cobbled alliances with their vanquished rivals and have been touring the forested West African nation for the last two weeks in their bid to woo voters.

Voter apathy

But if the first round was a jubilant expression of Liberians' faith in their prospects for peace and reconciliation after more than a decade of civil war, the second round has brought with it a weariness.

Many of the crumbling walls of Monrovia's buildings are bare of campaign posters and the candidate t-shirts that were de rigueur only three weeks ago appear to have been consigned to the fashion heap of history.

"We are seeing a real voter apathy that is concerning, because if people don't vote and then don't get the results they wanted, there could be trouble," one Western diplomat observed.

Part of the problem is that the choice is so stark: it is either Weah, a political novice with a groundswell of support among the disenfranchised youth or Sirleaf, who in her three decades of public service has made almost as many enemies as she has allies.

Difficult choices

"My candidate lost in the first round and I still don't know who I am going to vote for, even though he has given his support to Weah," said Victor Gbollie, a Monrovia barber who had backed lawyer Varney Sherman.

"I might not even show up on Tuesday, because I don't particularly care for either of the candidates, even though it is important for me to contribute to my country's future."

Weah attracted more than 100 000 people to his final first-round Monrovia rally, many of whom marched through the streets for hours in spite of scorching temperatures.

Johnson Sirleaf, too, boasted a crowd in the tens of thousands for her final programme at Antoinette Tubman stadium before the first round.

By contrast, a "Clean-Up Monrovia" effort by Weah's Congress for Democratic Change this weekend went unheeded and he was not even at capacity for his final stadium rally, while Sirleaf opted out completely and held a spontaneous parade through the streets of Monrovia on Sunday.

The National Electoral Commission was also on Monday hosting a concert in the capital to encourage people to vote.

- AFP