Doe Wins Controversial Liberian Election

Samuel K. Doe, the former army sergeant who five years ago shot his way out of obscurity to become Africa’s youngest head of state, was named the winner Tuesday in an election that he hopes will legitimize his rule.

The announcement of Doe’s victory was not unexpected, but it is unlikely to win him the international credibility he sought.

In the eyes of many resident diplomats, most of his opponents and what appears to be a broad spectrum of the Liberian public, his election to a six-year term as president was the result of one of the most blatant vote frauds in recent African history.

The elections commissioner, announcing the results Tuesday, said Doe won with 264,362 votes, or 50.9% of the popular vote. Opposition parties, whose estimates were backed by Western diplomats, assert that Doe actually received no more than 25% of the vote.

U.S. Aid at Stake

The outside perception of this election is significant, for almost one-third of Liberia’s budget comes from U.S. financial assistance. Continued U.S. aid to Liberia is contingent upon free and fair elections and a return to civilian rule here, according to U.S. congressional appropriations measures.

Liberia, a West African nation of 2 million people, was founded in 1847 by freed American slaves and has maintained close relations with the United States. In the five years since Doe took over here, after assassinating the former president and publicly executing 13 of his Cabinet ministers, U.S. aid has jumped from $15 million a year to $86 million. At the same time, largely because of what economists say is expanding corruption and shrinking managerial ability, the country’s economy has been in steady decline.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Beatrice Russell acknowledged that “there were some irregularities” during the election, but she said “the voting on the whole was well conducted with a large voter participation.”

Reading an official department statement, she also said: “These were the first multiparty elections ever held in Liberia on the basis of universal adult suffrage. . . . We have no independent information on vote tallies. The Liberian courts will have to assess charges of misconduct in the tabulation of votes which have been levied by both the government and the opposition. For our part, we have urged all Liberians to try to work together to meet the challenges which confront their country.”

‘Allocated Himself 51%’

A State Department official, who asked not to be identified by name, said sardonically: “They really have to work hard to live up to the tradition of democracy in Africa. The fact that he (Doe) only allocated himself 51% of the vote showed remarkable restraint.”

In Monrovia, the capital, there was no clear demonstration of the public’s mood after the announcement of Doe’s victory. Police and security personnel were conspicuous, however, indicating that the government was alert for signs of disturbance. The day was declared a national holiday, and shops and businesses were closed.

The principal opposition party, the Liberia Action Party, denounced the results as “a mockery of the law.” It said its candidates for the national legislature--11 of whom were declared winners--would refuse to assume office after a process it said went against “the wishes and aspirations” of the Liberian people.

Counted by Special Unit

The votes from the Oct. 15 balloting were counted by a special 50-member committee appointed by the election chief, Emmett Harmon, 72, a former ambassador whose rulings and statements consistently came down on the side of Doe’s National Democratic Party of Liberia.

The special counting committee was established in spite of election laws specifying that votes were to be counted at polling places, watched by representatives from the four parties contesting the election.

These procedures were carried out in most polling places, but Harmon declared those tallies invalid and organized a second count, despite protests from all of Doe’s opponents.

The opposition parties charged that the 50-member committee was made up largely of Doe supporters. Western diplomats also noted that at least 18 members of the committee were from Doe’s tribe, the Krahn, who make up about 5% of the Liberian population.

No Party Observers

No observers from the participating parties were allowed to monitor the count.

The announcement of Doe’s victory was made at the site of the 1979 summit meeting of the Organization of African Unity, at a meeting packed with Doe supporters, including top members of his government, the general staff of the army (who were mostly corporals and sergeants until Doe’s coup elevated them to ranks of general and colonel) and officials of Doe’s political party.

Doe attended the proceedings, arriving in a caravan of soldiers and security officers.

Harmon, the election commissioner, delivering what sometimes amounted to a sermon before revealing the results, said, “What we are about to announce here today was destined by God.”

According to Harmon, Doe’s party won 21 of the 26 seats in the new Senate and 51 of the 64 seats in the House of Representatives. He said the Liberia Action Party presidential candidate, Jackson Doe (no relative of Samuel Doe), won 137,270 votes or 26% of the total. The other two presidential candidates received about 11% each.

‘Let Posterity Judge’

Harmon made no direct reference to the widespread complaints of irregularities in the handling of the election ballots, but concluded that “anyone who feels, for selfish reasons, that justice has not been done, let posterity judge.”

Harmon’s comment underlined the suspicion held by many opposition figures here that they will have a poor chance of pressing their grievances before the courts or any other official body.

The opposition parties also have complained that ballots marked for Doe’s opponents were burned on their way to election headquarters and that ballot boxes were stuffed with votes for Doe.

During the two weeks that Harmon’s committee took to reach a result, tallies by poll watchers for opposition parties began to leak out, and they indicated that Doe was on his way to a sound beating. International observers regarded these tallies as reliable, since most of them were signed by the election officials on duty at the polling stations, as well as by party representatives.

In Montserrado County, which includes the urban areas around the capital, these tallies showed Doe trailing by 2 to 1. In up-country Nimba County, the Liberian Action Party was shown to have taken 91% of the votes. In Lofa County, the home ground of Unity Party candidate Edward Kessely, Doe also appeared to be running well behind. Those three counties alone, the most populous in the country, were large enough, according to most analysts, to swing the election.

Sources close to the executive mansion said this week that Doe was shocked at preliminary indications that he might have been beaten, and was convinced by his lieutenants that he had been outmaneuvered by his opposition. “Doe believed,” the source said, “that he had to outmaneuver them in return.”

Doe, who was 28 when he seized power here, is now said to be 35 years old, his official age having been advanced by two years so that he could qualify to run for the presidency.

Doe agreed to hold the elections, which he had promised during his first year in power, only after pressure from his countrymen, who insistently annoyed him with reminders of his pledge. The decisive pressure came from the United States, which threatened to cut off aid to his government unless it held elections.

Despite his announced triumph Tuesday, Doe’s government faces some hard times. Congressional scrutiny, stimulated by an active Liberian exile community in America, may result in a substantial reduction of U.S. aid. Economists say that without that aid, Doe’s government would not be able to pay basic salaries.

Already, most civil servants are two to three months behind in their pay. Liberia is also in arrears in its debts to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and European Economic Community. Economists say that major government-held businesses, their personnel rosters doubled or tripled since Doe took power, are losing money because of overstaffing, inefficiency and rampant corruption.

Times staff writer Norman Kempster in Washington also contributed to this story.