November 10, 2005

Africa's First FEMALE President


LIBERIANS have voted into office Africa's first elected female president, with Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the former finance minister, seeing off a challenge from George Weah, a former world footballer of the year.

With votes counted from nearly 90 per cent of the polling stations, the National Elections Commission (NEC) said Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf had won 59.2 per cent of the vote, while Mr Weah was on 40.8 per cent.

Election officials said they would investigate allegations of fraud made by the former footballer, but international observers who monitored the poll said preliminary findings indicated it was fair.

Frances Johnson-Morris, the chairwoman of the NEC, told reporters that the commission had received a formal fraud complaint from Mr Weah's campaign, but did not release details. "We'll do everything to expedite the investigation into this complaint," she said.

Mr Weah has accused poll workers of having plans to stuff ballot boxes in Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf's favour.

However, Jemima Caulcrick, a top official with Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf's Unity Party, said: "It's all lies. They're saying that because they know we will win. They just don't want a woman to be president in Africa."

Mr Weah has repeatedly been critical of the NEC and Ms Johnson-Morris, who is not related to Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf.

UN officials and others have praised the vote. Max van den Berg, head of a European Union observer mission, said the vote "has been well administered in a peaceful, transparent and orderly manner".

David Carroll, from the United States-based Carter Centre, said that while "minor irregularities" had been noted, "none of our observers saw any serious problems".



Thank You LORD!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats to her

I hope she's able to unite the country and bring development.

Stephen A. Bess said...

Bravo for history and change! :)

Jenell : BlakIzBeautyful said...

AMEN!

Stephen A. Bess said...

I'm sending this post to some friends. By the way, I like your new image. It reminds me of the Yoruba Goddess, Oshun.

Jenell : BlakIzBeautyful said...

Stephen...
Please spread the news! All over DC, shoot, spread it all over America!

I never heard of Oshun before, I just read some things on her and it's really nice.

What I like about this portrait is her reflection. If you look closely or click it to see an enlarged view, you will see that she see's herself as a Queen. Her natural appearance is ever so elegant, but in her reflection she is royalty. She wears a tiara and many precious jewels. It's titled Reflections of a Queen by A. C. Smith. I will soon feature his or her work in my photo gallery. In fact, I'll go do it now.

Go take a peek.

Brother Bohemian...
Thank you for your wishes. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the strife of Liberia, but my country has undergone a horrible civil war for the past 14 yrs and this is the first step to peace for us.

Jenell : BlakIzBeautyful said...

Thank you Brother Bohemian.
My country needs all the blessings.

Spelangel said...

Nubian Soul just posted an interesting prespectve about this...check her out

nubiansoul.blogspot

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