Fotos – Use people in a queue Liberia votes
MONROVIA - Liberians yesterday went to the polls to choose a successor to Africa's first elected female president and Nobel Peace laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Ex-football star George Weah and Vice-President Joseph Boakai are the main contenders in the race to succeed her.
Liberia, founded by freed US slaves in the 19th Century, has not had a smooth transfer of power in 73 years.
Sirleaf urged people to vote peacefully in a nation still recovering from a 14-year civil war.
"Your vote is about you and your family - not party, ethnicity," she said in an address to the nation.
A total of 20 presidential candidates are running to suc- ceed Sirleaf. They include Alex Cummings, a former Coca-Cola executive, and MacDella Cooper, an ex-model and girlfriend of Weah.
Sirleaf, 78, is stepping down at the end of her two terms.
She took office in 2006, after her predecessor, Charles Taylor, was forced out of office by reb- els in 2003.
Taylor is currently serving a 50-year prison sentence in the UK for war crimes related to the conflict in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
Weah, 51, has chosen Taylor’s ex-wife Jewel Howard Taylor as his running mate. This is the former footballer of the year’s third attempt to become president.
Sirleaf has failed to campaign for Boakai, fuelling speculation that the two have fallen out.
Campaigning has been dominated by promises to tackle poverty, corruption, and guarantee stability in the West African state.