Liberians are voting in the presidential run-off despite at least one death during opposition protests and a boycott over fraud claims. Opposition candidate Winston Tubman said he was pulling out of the vote, but the election commission urged Liberians to cast their ballots. Nobel Peace laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first elected female president, is now the only candidate.
A BBC reporter says turnout seems much lower than in the first round. The BBC’s Jonathan Paye-Layleh in central Monrovia says at the polling station where he was when voting began, just eight people were waiting to cast their ballots, compared to hundreds last month.
Our reporter says he has received similar reports from other parts of Liberia, including the second city, Buchanan. It seems many people feel it is pointless to vote because Mrs Sirleaf is assured of victory, but voting may pick up towards the evening, our correspondent says. But he says Mrs Sirleaf’s re-election will be tainted unless turnout is high. She was elected in 2005, in the first election since the end of a 14-year civil war.
Full Article: BBC News – Liberians vote despite Tubman-Weah protests.