Après avoir boycotté le second tour de l’élection présidentielle en novembre dernier, Winston Tubman et son parti ont contre toute attente accepté dimanche de participer à un gouvernement d’union nationale. Pour celle que ses concitoyens ont surnommé la « Dame de fer », ce ralliement et la reconnaissance de sa légitimité à la tête de l’Etat par son principal adversaire, est certainement la meilleure nouvelle de ce début d’année.

Son aura sur la scène internationale n’est plus à faire, son prix Nobel de la paix obtenu juste avant l’élection et son amitié avec Hillary Clinton présente ce lundi à Monrovia sont là pour en témoigner.

En revanche, au niveau local son image est beaucoup plus floue. Une bonne partie de la population l’assimile toujours à l’élite américano-libérienne dont la gestion du pays a été caractérisée pendant des décennies par une corruption généralisée.

Tout en reconnaissant les progrès accomplis depuis la fin de la guerre civile, Hillary Clinton n’a d’ailleurs pas manqué de rappeler que la corruption était l’un des obstacles à une plus grande prospérité du Liberia. Ellen Johson Sirleaf le sait. La reconstruction du pays, la création d’emplois et la poursuite du travail de réconciliation sont les autres défis qui l’attendent pour les six prochaines années.

RFI.

Johnson-Sirleaf, a newly named Nobel peace laureate and currently Africa’s only elected female head of state, won the poll with over 90 percent of the ballots cast, but the election was marred by an opposition boycott and electoral violence.

“Our lawyers are busy working on all of our legal options and we have several,” opposition leader Winston Tubman, Johnson-Sirleaf’s main presidential challenger, told a news conference at his party headquarters in Monrovia.

“We believe that everything that flows from Tuesday’s elections must be annulled and a new round of elections scheduled within a month.”

Tubman had urged his supporters to boycott the poll over alleged fraud in the first round, in which he won about 33 percent of the vote to Johnson-Sirleaf’s 44 percent. He had said he was seeking changes to the vote counting process for the run-off, and a delay to give him more time for campaigning.

The day before the vote, security forces used tear gas and live ammunition to disperse a crowd of opposition supporters in and around the party headquarters, killing two. Tubman was in the headquarters at the time and said he felt he was personally targeted, a charge the government denies.

Johnson-Sirleaf told Reuters on Friday that she would work with Tubman only if he accepted the results of the run-off, but would otherwise seek reconciliation with the country’s opposition political parties.

The election was the West African state’s first locally organised presidential contest since a civil war ended in 2003, and was meant to pave the way for billions of dollars of international investment in its resource industries.

International observers said they saw no evidence of fraud during the election process, but regretted the boycott and the electoral violence.

Liberia is one of the world’s poorest countries and is struggling to rebuild after the 14 years of fighting left its infrastructure and economy in ruins.

Reuters.

“Puisque Mme Sirleaf va maintenant prétendre être présidente” réélue, “et est reconnue par la communauté internationale, nous devons trouver un moyen de travailler avec elle, et je pense que cela n’est pas insurmontable”, a déclaré M. Tubman, 70 ans, dans un entretien avec des journalistes de l’AFP et de Radio France Internationale (RFI) à sa résidence vendredi matin à Monrovia.

Selon des résultats portant sur 86,6% des bureaux de vote communiqués jeudi soir par la Commission électorale nationale (NEC), Mme Sirleaf a obtenu 90,8% des voix au second tour de la présidentielle organisé le 8 novembre. Mais la participation a été faible (37,4%), contrairement à celle du 1er tour du 11 octobre qui avait dépassé 71%

Winston Tubman, diplomate et leader du Congrès pour le changement démocratique (CDC), s’était retiré de la course le 4 novembre et avait appelé à boycotter le scrutin, en affirmant que le second tour serait entaché de fraudes et d’irrégularités similaires à celles qu’il avait dénoncées au premier tour.

Vendredi, il a réaffirmé que, comme précédemment indiqué, son parti ne reconnaîtrait pas les résultats du second tour car il “n’est pas à vendre” et a contribué au faible taux de participation par son appel au boycott.

Toutefois, a-t-il précisé, le CDC est “prêt à panser les plaies de notre pays et à unir notre pays” après des guerres civiles qui ont fait 250. 000 morts, détruit les infrastructures et ruiné l’économie du Liberia de 1989 à 2003.

“Nous nous sommes engagés dans la politique parce que nous avons l’ambition profonde d’unir le pays, de panser les plaies (. . . ) et cela doit continuer”, a encore déclaré M. Tubman, affirmant qu’il tente de convaincre les jeunes de son parti, paraissant déterminés à contester le pouvoir de Mme Sirleaf, que la paix était la chose la plus importante pour le Liberia et dépassait les ambitions personnelles.

Jeune afrique

Newly-named Nobel Peace laureate Johnson-Sirleaf won 90.8 percent of votes according to tallies returned from more than 86 of the country’s polling stations. More results are due on Friday.

But her victory was tainted by low turnout for Tuesday’s poll, which highlighted simmering tensions in the West African country instead of solidifying the fragile gains made since 14 years of civil war ended in 2003.

At least two people were killed as authorities broke up an opposition protest on the eve of the election and supporters of her main challenger, former U.N. diplomat Winston Tubman, have said they do not recognise Johnson-Sirleaf’s win.

Her Unity Party’s failure to win a majority in parliamentary elections held last month may boost the need for her to seek allies, although she has not specified whether that will run to government posts for Tubman or other opposition leaders.

“I will reach out to all the presidential candidates. What I will offer them is not yet known,” she told reporters on Thursday.

In a separate interview with UN Radio, she said the fact she was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize days before the first round of voting in October meant she now had to go “the extra mile” in promoting reconciliation.

“We are going to reach out to everybody and ensure that they have a participation in what we do,” she said.

Stability in Liberia is a vital piece in the overall security make-up of West Africa, a region trying to move on from decades of civil wars and coups in countries such as Ivory Coast, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Tubman, who was a senior aide to former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, scored 9.2 percent. His name was left on ballot slips despite his decision to withdraw from the run-off, alleging irregularities in the first round of voting.

MORE WORK NEEDED

Provisional turnout for the run-off was just 37.4 percent, barely half the first-round figure when excited Liberians queued in the rain to cast their ballot.

International election observers say voting has been broadly fair, but the violence and the low turnout has prompted calls on Johnson-Sirleaf to do more to heal divisions.

“The Liberian efforts for inclusion now must accelerate,” John Stremlau of the Carter Center observer mission said.

Tubman alleges that authorities made an attempt on his life as they broke up Monday’s opposition rally — an accusation the government strenuously denies — and said ahead of the results that any form of power-sharing accord was unlikely.

Tubman on Friday declined further comment until the full results were known. But several supporters of his CDC party have said they would not accept the outcome.

“The election is not correct. It is not correct because the turnout is poor. I am a CDC supporter and I did not vote,” said Nora Wilson, 45, a used-clothing saleswoman in Monrovia.

Critics say Johnson-Sirleaf, while at least keeping Liberia on an even keel after a war that claimed nearly a quarter million lives, has not done enough to spur development in a country where average income is less than a dollar a day.

She told UN Radio she would count on U.N. agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and child welfare body UNICEF to supplement local efforts to tackle poverty.

Liberia is hoping iron ore resources being mined by groups such as ArcelorMittal will find reconstruction. However it received a blow to its hopes of a future oil bonanza this week as tests at its offshore Montserrado well failed to hit oil in commercial quantities. ,

Reuters.

Newly-named Nobel laureate Johnson-Sirleaf is tipped to win a second term in the war-scarred West African country after rival Winston Tubman dropped out of a November 8 run-off vote, alleging fraud in an October first round won by the incumbent.

“President Sirleaf is going to reach out to all Liberians and those of the CDC (opposition party). She will foster unity and reconciliation,” Norris Tweah, Deputy Minister for Administration, Information Ministry, told Reuters.

“If it means she will form a national government of inclusion, she will do so. There are good people in the CDC camp,” he said. Johnson-Sirleaf, he said, would not rule out including Tubman himself in her next government.

Results from Tuesday’s run-off are due to start coming in on on Thursday. Although Tubman dropped out and urged Liberians to boycott the vote, his name appeared on ballot slips. A low turnout could raise questions over the credibility of the vote.

Liberian police used tear gas, truncheons and live rounds to disperse hundreds of CDC supporters who had spilled onto a major roadway near their headquarters on Monday, leaving two dead. U.N. peacekeepers were present in support of the police.

Former U.N. diplomat Tubman, who was in the CDC headquarters at the time of the clash, said he felt personally targeted, an assertion the government has denied.

But Tubman told Reuters on Wednesday the incident could make power-sharing “unlikely or impossible” and he was considering a legal challenge to the results of the run-off.

Tubman took about 33 percent of the first-round ballots, to Johnson-Sirleaf’s 44 percent.

The election is the first locally organised presidential vote in Liberia since 14 years of fighting that ended in 2003. The United Nations staged a previous vote in 2005 which also ended in a dispute.

Liberia wants to put the conflict behind it and use its iron and other resource wealth to rebuild. Critics of Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa’s first freely elected female head of state, say progress in her first term was too slow.

Liberia received a blow to its reconstruction hopes on Wednesday as tests from its offshore Montserrado well failed to confirm the presence of oil in commercial quantities.

Reuters

Quelques centaines de militants du CDC (Congrès pour le changement démocratique) s’étaient assemblés au siège du parti à Monrovia. Le rassemblement se voulait pacifique. Certains chantaient « on veut la paix et la justice » et en même temps, les esprits s’échauffaient parmi les militants : « Si la police ou les casques bleus touchent à un seul d’entre nous, ce sera un désastre », dit un militant. « Il faut reporter le scrutin en respectant nos exigences », dit un autre militant.

Jets de pierre et tirs à balles réelles à Monrovia

Tout a dégénéré à la mi-journée. Les militants du CDC, beaucoup de jeunes hommes très remontés contre la présidente sortante ont commencé à envahir la rue, devant le siège du parti, encadrant les voitures de leurs candidats, Winston Tubman et George Weah. Mais un peu plus loin, une rangée de casques bleus et de policiers anti-émeutes libériens bloquaient la rue.

La tension est montée. Des jets de pierre ont eu lieu. Et la police anti-émeute libérienne a répliqué, d’abord avec des gaz lacrymogènes. Puis des tirs à balles réelles ont été entendus quand la police a pénétré dans le QG du CDC. Bilan : deux morts au moins, vus par des journalistes. George Weah, le footballeur candidat du CDC à la vice-présidence parle, lui, de trois ou quatre morts et de nombreux blessés. La mission de l’ONU confirme, elle, un décès.

La mission de l’ONU confirme aussi que ses casques bleus se sont interposés ensuite entre la police libérienne et les militants. Ceci pour tenter d’apaiser la situation. Trois casques bleus ont d’ailleurs été légèrement blessés. Trois heures plus tard, les blindés et troupes de l’ONU gardaient effectivement le siège du parti, tandis que des policiers continuaient de mener des arrestations parfois musclées.

Un second tour sous haute surveillance

Ces accrochages interviennent donc à la veille d’un second tour, assez singulier, puisqu’il n’y aura qu’un seul candidat en lice, la présidente sortante Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Depuis l’annonce du boycott du second tour de l’élection par Winston Tubman, la Commission électorale a annoncé que le vote aurait bien lieu, conformément à la Constitution. D’ailleurs les bulletins avaient bien été imprimés avec les noms des deux candidats. Ces deux derniers jours, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf exhortait les Libériens à aller voter pour consacrer « la paix revenue il y a 8 ans au Liberia ».

Arrivée en tête au premier tour avec près de 44% des voix contre près de 33% pour Winston Tubman, elle a aussi reçu des soutiens de poids : ceux de Prince Johnson et Charles Brumskine arrivés troisième et quatrième lors du premier tour. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf accuse son adversaire de boycotter la suite du processus de peur de perdre. Le CDC, lui dénonce des fraudes et ne se satisfait pas de la démission du président de la Commission electorale la semaine dernière. Le premier tour s’était déroulé dans le calme, ce dont tout le monde s’était félicité. Un scrutin salué et qualifié par les quelque 4 000 observateurs nationaux et internationaux comme « libre et transparent » avec 71% de participation.

A la veille de ce second tour dans un pays traumatisé par 14 ans de guerre civile, c’est la tension qui inquiète. Des casques bleus prévoient des patrouilles dans les rues de Monrovia.

in RFI.

Tubman, a former United Nations diplomat, was meant to stand against incumbent Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in the November 8 run-off but last week withdrew his participation in the process and called for a boycott, citing electoral fraud during the first round of voting last month.

“I think that at the end of the day we will have to evaluate what is likely to be better for the country: delaying the elections or going forward with them in a way that doesn’t carry the support of such a big party in the country,” Tubman told Reuters in an interview in the garden of his residence in the capital Monrovia.

“The impact on the region would be huge if we were to descend into chaos again. The whole cycle would begin again, confusion in neighboring countries, people running away, tension in the country. This would be far more costly in the long term than if we were to delay the election for a month.”

International election observers called the October 11 poll mostly free and fair, and the United States, regional bloc ECOWAS and the African Union have all criticized Tubman’s decision to boycott the second round.

Tubman’s CDC party has accused Liberia’s election commission of “massive fraud” during the first-round vote, in which Tubman took just under 33 percent of the votes to Johnson-Sirleaf’s nearly 44 percent.

The party said it had evidence that at least three ballot boxes were opened improperly by electoral staff shortly after the vote, and said there were several other inconsistencies that pointed to systematic rigging.

“Calling it massive fraud may be an exaggerated way of talking, but we feel that what happened did not properly reflect the protection of our interests, and we would like to see those interests respected,” Tubman said.

He said he was asking that his party be granted additional access to the vote counting process “so that we can see what is happening” and that a run-off be delayed by between two and four weeks to allow time for campaigning.

The election is the West African state’s first locally-organized presidential contest since the end of its civil war in 2003, and was meant to be a gauge of the country’s progress and to open the door to mine and oil investment.

A demonstration called by the CDC over the weekend failed to attract large-scale support, but the boycott call has raised fears that some of the party’s supporters could try to disrupt voting on Tuesday.

The National Election Commission, whose chairman resigned last week under pressure from the CDC, said the vote would go ahead as planned.

Tubman is pushing for a delay and says he has sought but failed to talk directly to Johnson-Sirleaf about the issue.

A spokesman for Johnson-Sirleaf denied Tubman had requested a meeting and added “once he agrees to meet with the president, she will surely welcome him”.

NOT MY CHOICE

Johnson-Sirleaf became Africa’s first freely elected female head of state in 2005, and has been internationally praised for reducing debt and maintaining peace in a country devastated by 14-years of fighting that killed up to a quarter of a million people.

But she faces criticism within the country for the slow pace of recovery from the war, with more than half the population still living on less than 50 cents a day and most citizens lacking access to power and water.

Tubman, whose running mate in the election is former soccer star George Weah, said that he felt unable to give in to the broad international pressure to reverse his boycott because it risked radicalizing his mostly young, unemployed supporters.

“I cannot on my own say I am pulling my party into this election on the 8th. If I were to do that before convincing my party that this is the way to go, the result would be worse for the process because my party would no longer be influenced by me and I don’t know what influences it would fall under.”

“It could become more extreme, it could become belligerent,” he said.

Tubman said he was urging his supporters not to resort to violence, but he reaffirmed his refusal to recognise results coming from the election and warned of long-term turmoil.

“We will do everything to be calm, law abiding. But there would be problems, I have to admit. People…who want to invest here would think, well, we better take our money elsewhere because Liberia might explode.” he said.

in Reuters.

“Aucun des 16 candidats n’a obtenu la majorité absolue de 50% plus une voix. Winston Tubman du Congrès pour le changement démocratique (CDC) et Ellen Jonhson Sirleaf du Parti de l’unité (UP, au pouvoir) disputeront le second tour”, a déclaré mardi soir le président de la Commission électorale nationale (NEC), James Fromayan.

Mme Sirleaf, qui avait obtenu le Nobel de la paix 2011 quatre jours avant le scrutin, arrive en tête avec 43,9% des voix, suivie de M. Tubman (32,7%) et de l’ex-chef de guerre Prince Johnson (11,6%) qui a déjà annoncé son soutien au second tour à Mme Sirleaf.

M. Tubman a menacé de ne pas y participer si le président de la NEC n’était pas remplacé, arguant de fraudes et irrégularités au 1er tour.

James Fromayan a précisé que ces plaintes étaient en train d’être examinées, mais qu’elles ne changeraient pas les résultats. Il a invité M. Tubman a présenter ses preuves de fraudes dès mercredi.

Le 1er tour de la présidentielle s’est tenu en même temps que des législatives et sénatoriales partielles.

L’UP de Mme Sirleaf remporte 24 des 73 sièges à l’Assemblée nationale, contre 11 pour le CDC, 6 pour l’Union nationale pour la démocratie et le progrès (NUDP) de Prince Johnson et 3 pour ke Parti national patriotique (NPP) de l’ex-chef de guerre Charles Taylor, qui attend à La Haye son jugement pour crimes de guerre et crimes contre l’humanité commis en Sierra Leone voisine. Les 29 autres sièges reviennent à de petites formations.

L’UP remporte 4 des 15 sièges de sénateurs qui étaient à pourvoir (sur 30 au total), autant pour le NPP et 2 pour le CDC. Le reste se partage entre plusieurs petits partis.

Le Liberia se remet de 14 ans de guerres civiles (1989-2003) qui ont fait environ 250. 000 morts et ruiné son économie.

Jeune Afrique.

M. Fromayan s’est réjoui devant la presse du caractère pacifique de ces élections qui se sont déroulées mardi, affirmant que son pays, sorti de 14 ans de guerres civiles en 2003, avait atteint “une nouvelle dimension”, les Libériens ayant fait le choix “de l’urne contre le fusil”.

Il a précisé que de premiers résultats provisoires seraient annoncés à partir de jeudi après-midi par la NEC pour la présidentielle, les législatives et les sénatoriales. La proclamation des résultats officiels définitifs est prévue le 26 octobre.

Le résultat le plus attendu est celui de la présidentielle, qui opposait 16 candidats, les deux principaux étant Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 72 ans, première présidente élue d’Afrique en 2005, et Winston Tubman, 70 ans, soutenu par le très populaire George Weah, ex-star du football international.

Quatre jours avant le scrutin, Mme Johnson Sirleaf avait reçu le prix Nobel de la paix, une récompense vivement critiquée par M. Tubman qui l’avait jugée “inacceptable” et “non méritée”.

Le chef de la NEC n’a pas donné de chiffre concernant le taux de participation, mais mardi, son porte-parole avait prévu qu’il serait “impressionnant”.

Toute la journée de mardi, de longues files se sont formées dans le calme devant les bureaux de vote du Liberia, signe de l’engouement pour ces élections auprès des quelque 1,8 millions de personnes appelées à voter. Une participation et une absence de violences unanimement saluées par les nombreux observateurs internationaux présents.

in Jeune Afrique.