Ex-Warlord Named Winner of Liberia’s Presidential Election
Charles Taylor, the former rebel chief who initiated Liberia’s seven-year civil war, on Thursday was officially declared the winner of a presidential election.
Liberia’s election commission said that it had counted more than 90% of the ballots from Saturday’s election and that Taylor received 75% of the vote.
His closest opponent, former United Nations official Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, received 9.5%.
None of the other 11 candidates received more than 4% of the 621,888 votes counted so far, said Henry Andrews, head of the Independent Elections Commission.
The former rebel chief campaigned on a platform of peace and reconciliation and apologized for the suffering and destruction caused by the war. The fighting began in December 1989, when he launched an incursion aimed at toppling the dictatorship of President Samuel K. Doe, who was killed in 1990.
While Taylor’s first-round victory came as a surprise, more than 500 international observers who watched the voting said the election was free and fair.
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