Liberia Church Leaders Urge Calm in Runoff Row over Election Results

Church leaders in Liberia urged calm on Sunday following a row over the results of the presidential elections after economist Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s run-off win was disputed by her rival, George Weah.

|TOP|Sunday sermons were filled with the urgent pleas of Protestant and Catholic pastors and priests not to turn back to the political violence that tore the country apart during its 14-year civil war which came to an end two years ago.

“Liberia is at a critical stage. We call on all voters, in the name of peace, to allow peace to prevail,” said Pentecostalist Bishop Isaac Winker at his church in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia.

Presidential candidate, George Weah, the former AC Milan striker, challenged the outcome of the elections, saying that Tuesday’s run-off vote was riddled with irregularities such as doctored ballot papers, reported Reuters.

Weah’s party has subsequently filed official complaints of fraud to the Supreme Court and to electoral authorities, despite African, European and U.S. observers declaring the election free and fair.

|AD|Hundreds of Weah supporters had to be dispersed by U.N. police with batons and tear gas Friday following a demonstration outside the Elections Commission headquarters where they chanted “No Weah, no peace”.

Sunday saw a peaceful Monrovia, with churchgoers, including Johnson-Sirleaf, turning out for mass. Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf said: “I feel very good, I have come to worship.”

I need God’s blessing in this work I am going to do. It is only God that can guide me and carry me through,” she said.

“I pray for our country Liberia,” she added.

Although the NEC has yet to formally declare Johnson-Sirleaf the official winner of Tuesday’s poll, the former World Bank official called the run-off results “irreversible and offered Weah a post in the new government.

She vowed to rebuild Liberia and close the door to a bloody and painful chapter in the country’s history.