Liberia's election commission declares final result

Liberia's National Elections Commission (NEC) has released final results of the Oct. 11, 2011 legislative and presidential elections, saying that none of the 16 presidential candidates obtained an absolute majority to be declared winner. The election law of Liberia provides that a presidential candidate must obtain 50 percent plus one vote of valid ballots counted as prescribed in article 83 b of the 1986 Liberian constitution. At a news conference on Tuesday evening, NEC Chairman James Fromayan said this provision was never met during the last elections. "Consequently, none of the candidates is qualified to be declared winner in the presidential contest," he told reporters, adding that a run-off will be held on Nov. 8, 2011. "In this connection, I herewith declare that a run-off election will be contested by the two presidential candidates who received the highest number of votes in these elections including Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of the UP and Winston A. Tubman of the opposition Congress of Democratic Change," he added. The NEC Chairman said campaign for the run-off elections is declared open immediately after this announcement. According to Fromayan, 4,383 national observers from 80 organizations and 921 international observers from 45 organization participated in the elections. Announcing final presidential results, Fromayan said incumbent President Sirleaf of the Unity Party received 530,020 or 43.9 percent while Winston Tubman of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) received 394,370 or 32.7 percent of valid votes. According to him, 53 complaints of allegations were filed with the commission, saying the commission is pleased to state that all of the complaints have been resolved with about 8 pending, while 6 were withdrawn by the complainants. "Three other cases have been forwarded to the Ministry of Justice for prosecution and that 13 of the 53 complaints have been legally resolved with parties duly notified," he said. Hearing into complaint filed by the CDC over electoral fraud will be held on Wednesday.