2005 Liberian general election

2005 Liberian general election

Presidential election

11 October 2005 (first round) 8 November 2005 (second round)

Nominee Ellen Johnson Sirleaf George Weah Party UP CDC Running mate Joseph Boakai Rudolph Johnson Popular vote 478,526 327,046 Percentage 59.40% 40.60%

President before election Gyude Bryant LAP Elected President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf UP

General elections were held in Liberia on 11 October 2005, with a runoff election for the presidency held on 8 November. The presidency and all seats in the House of Representatives and Senate were up for election. The elections were the first held since 1997 and marked the end of the political transition following the second civil war, having been stipulated in the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2004. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former World Bank employee and Liberian finance minister, won the presidential contest and became the first democratically elected female African head of state in January 2006.

Background

Frances Johnson-Morris, the chairwoman of the National Elections Commission (NEC), announced the October 11 date on February 7, 2005.

Elections were scheduled for all 64 seats in the House of Representatives, with each of Liberia's 15 counties having at least two seats and the remaining seats allotted proportionally based on voter registration. The Senate had 30 seats up for elections, with two from each county.

Presidential candidates

Prior to the election, former football star George Weah was considered by many to be the favorite, due at least partially to widespread dissatisfaction with Liberia's politicians. Weah, who had been the subject of a petition published in September 2004 urging him to run, announced his candidacy in mid-November 2004 and received a hero's welcome when he arrived in Monrovia later in the month. Weah won the first round of voting but lost in the November 8, 2005 run-off. He initially filed formal fraud charges, but subsequently dropped his allegations, citing the interests of peace.

Excluded candidates

The chairman of the transitional government, Gyude Bryant, and other members of the transitional government did not run, according to the terms of the peace deal.

On August 13, the election commission published a list of 22 presidential candidates who were cleared to run; six candidates were rejected, but Weah was cleared to stand despite complaints that he had adopted French citizenship. The Senate seats were contested by 206 candidates and the seats in the lower house were contested by 503 candidates. [1] Campaigning for the elections began on August 15.

In late September, the Supreme Court ruled that two excluded presidential candidates, Marcus Jones and Cornelius Hunter, and an excluded legislative candidate could register to run; this ruling created the possibility that the elections would have to be postponed in order to reprint ballot papers. However, these candidates later withdrew their bids, so the elections went ahead on schedule on October 11.

Results

President

Voting took place in two rounds 11 October and 8 November. Twenty-two people contested the presidential race in the first round. George Weah, former soccer star and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former World Bank employee and finance minister finished first and second, respectively and advanced to the second round run-off, which Johnson-Sirleaf won 59%-41%, according to the National Electoral Commission.

Weah claimed election fraud, stating elections officials were stuffing ballot boxes in Johnson-Sirleaf's favor. Most elections observers, including those from the United Nations, the European Union and the Economic Community of West African States, say that the election was clean and transparent. The Carter Center observed "minor irregularities" but no major problems. Johnson-Sirleaf reminded the press that Weah has 72 hours to bring evidence of wrongdoing to her campaign according to Liberian law, calling the accusations "lies" and stating that Weah's supporters "just don't want a woman to be President in Africa."

On December 22, 2005, Weah withdrew his protests, and in January, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the first democratically elected female Head of State in the history of the African Continent, and the first native female African head of state since Empress Zauditu, who ruled Ethiopia from 1916 to 1930.

Candidate		Running mate	Party	First round		Second round
				Votes	%	Votes	%
	Ellen Johnson Sirleaf	Joseph Boakai	Unity Party	192,326	19.75	478,526	59.40
	George Weah	J. Rudolph Johnson	Congress for Democratic Change	275,265	28.27	327,046	40.60
	Charles Brumskine	Amelia Angeline Ward	Liberty Party	135,093	13.87
	Winston Tubman	Jeremiah Sulunteh	National Democratic Party of Liberia	89,623	9.20
	Varney Sherman	John Kollehlon Fania	Coalition for the Transformation of Liberia	76,403	7.85
	Roland Massaquoi	Q. Somah Paygai Sr.	National Patriotic Party	40,361	4.14
	Joseph Korto	James Kollie Barclay Jr.	Liberia Equal Rights Party	31,814	3.27
	Alhaji G.V. Kromah	Emmanuel Mac Russell Sr.	All Liberia Coalition Party	27,141	2.79
	Togba-Nah Tipoteh	Marcus S. G. Dahn	Alliance for Peace and Democracy	22,766	2.34
	William V.S. Tubman Jr.	Garlo Isaac Williams	Reformed United Liberia Party	15,115	1.55
	John Morlu	Joseph Omaxline Demen	United Democratic Alliance	12,068	1.24
	Nathaniel Barnes	Parleh Dargbeh Harris	Liberian Destiny Party	9,325	0.96
	Margaret Tor-Thompson	J. Rudolph Marsh Sr.	Freedom Alliance Party of Liberia	8,418	0.86
	Joseph Woah-Tee	Samuel Washington Broh I.	Labor Party of Liberia	5,948	0.61
	Sekou Conneh	Edward Yarkpawolo Sali	Progressive Democratic Party	5,499	0.56
	David Farhat	Saah Ciapha Gbollie	Free Democratic Party	4,497	0.46
	George Klay Kieh	Alaric Tokpa	New Deal Movement	4,476	0.46
	Armah Jallah	Isaac G. Sammy Sr.	National Party of Liberia	3,837	0.39
	Robert Kpoto	Sylvester Bondo Singbe	Union of Liberian Democrats	3,825	0.39
	George Kiadii	Washington Shadrack McGill	National Vision Party of Liberia	3,646	0.37
	Samuel Raymond Divine	Jacob Gbanalagaye Mamu Sr.	Independent	3,188	0.33
	Alfred Reeves	Martin Mohammed Njavola Sherif	National Reformation Party	3,156	0.32
Total				973,790	100.00	805,572	100.00
Valid votes				973,790	96.16	805,572	97.56
Invalid/blank votes				38,883	3.84	20,144	2.44
Total votes				1,012,673	100.00	825,716	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				1,352,730	74.86	1,352,730	61.04
Source: National Elections Commission

House of Representatives

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	Congress for Democratic Change	157,753	16.87	15
	Coalition for the Transformation of Liberia	137,897	14.74	8
	Liberty Party	125,496	13.42	9
	Unity Party	123,373	13.19	8
	National Patriotic Party	78,751	8.42	4
	Alliance for Peace and Democracy	38,285	4.09	5
	New Deal Movement	35,721	3.82	3
	National Democratic Party	29,402	3.14	1
	National Reformation Party	22,542	2.41	1
	All Liberia Coalition Party	19,471	2.08	2
	Free Democratic Party	19,326	2.07	0
	United Democratic Alliance	13,958	1.49	1
	Progressive Democratic Party	11,997	1.28	0
	Freedom Alliance Party	11,126	1.19	0
	Union of Liberian Democrats	10,089	1.08	0
	Labor Party of	7,811	0.84	0
	Liberia Equal Rights Party	7,256	0.78	0
	Reformed United Liberia Party	6,252	0.67	0
	Liberia Destiny Party	5,493	0.59	0
	National Vision Party of Liberia	3,443	0.37	0
	National Party of Liberia	1,532	0.16	0
	Independents	68,387	7.31	7
Total		935,361	100.00	64
Valid votes		935,361	94.68
Invalid/blank votes		52,550	5.32
Total votes		987,911	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,291,541	76.49
Source: African Elections Database

Senate

As no Senate existed prior to the elections, each voter was eligible to cast two ballots for different candidates. The two candidates with the highest number of votes in each county were elected. The candidate with the highest share of votes became the senior senator for the county, elected to a nine-year term. The candidate with the second-highest share became the junior senator, elected to a six-year term. This method was chosen in order to reintroduce a staggered electoral system.

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	Congress for Democratic Change	252,677	14.94	3
	Coalition for the Transformation of Liberia	232,636	13.76	7
	Unity Party	222,705	13.17	4
	Liberty Party	213,002	12.60	3
	National Patriotic Party	178,259	10.54	3
	Alliance for Peace and Democracy	119,091	7.04	3
	National Democratic Party	60,668	3.59	2
	All Liberia Coalition Party	28,385	1.68	1
	Progressive Democratic Party	17,262	1.02	0
	Reformed United Liberia Party	13,293	0.79	0
	Freedom Alliance Party	13,050	0.77	0
	National Reformation Party	12,037	0.71	1
	United Democratic Alliance	11,265	0.67	0
	Union of Liberian Democrats	5,503	0.33	0
	New Deal Movement	4,264	0.25	0
	Liberia Destiny Party	3,431	0.20	0
	Labor Party	1,645	0.10	0
	Independents	301,729	17.84	3
Total		1,690,902	100.00	30
Registered voters/turnout		1,291,541	–
Source: NEC