Smash hit

"We’ll work for ourselves, but if the country is free, then the money will come."

Some 400 international observers and 900 local monitors have fanned out across the country. Human rights workers are confident that the elections will be free and fair after a two-month campaign marked by an unusual calm.

After the polls close at 1800GMT, the winning candidate must gain a simple majority of the ballots to avoid a run-off with the runner-up. Results must be posted within 15 days, although a final tally is expected earlier. A second round, if necessary, would be held in early November.

Liberians will also select 30 senators and 64 representatives in a bicameral system modelled on that of the United States, from where freed slaves were resettled before they founded the republic in 1847.

The country enjoyed relative stability for more than a century after its colonisation, with the slave founders forming impenetrable elite that ruled unchallenged until 1980 when a semi-literate 27-year-old army sergeant called Samuel Doe staged a military coup.

Doe - memorably called "Chairman Moe" by President Reagan on a visit to the White House - became a Cold War ally of the US and a big recipient of aid. His personal bank account swelled. Much of the middle class fled the country, and the average income dropped by 75 per cent in a decade.

After ten years of his authoritarian rule, rebels commanded by Charles Taylor, a US- educated Liberian, reached Monrovia. Doe was captured, tortured in front of the television cameras and killed. An interim government was formed, but the civil war continued.

In the 1997 election, Mr Taylor was elected President — more to keep him from continuing the war than a belief in his leadership. It was wishful thinking.

Mr Taylor aided the rebels in Sierra Leone, fuelling a war there, and supported revolts in Guinea and Ivory Coast. In turn, his neighbours backed two rebel groups hoping to overthrow him.

After battles for Monrovia — known as World War One, Two and Three — Mr Taylor was convinced in 2003 to go into exile in Nigeria, where he remains. He is feared by some to be breaching the terms of his exile by manipulating the election from across the border.

A transitional power-sharing government was sworn in, with the businessman Gyude Bryant as interim president. That peace has prevailed is thanks to a big UN operation.

About 15,000 peacekeepers have helped to disarm 100,000 former combatants. The stability, and now the election, has brought optimism.

Candidate profiles

GEORGE WEAH (Congress for Democratic Change): Weah, 39, is a former international footballer who played for Monaco, Paris St Germain and AC Milan. Now a millionaire, he was born into a family of 12 children and grew up in a Monrovia shantytown. Popular with young and grassroots voters, he is seen as untainted by links with former warlords, though opponents say he lacks the experience and education needed to run the country.

ELLEN JOHNSON-SIRLEAF (Unity Party): Johnson-Sirleaf, 66, is a Harvard-educated economist. A former finance minister who has also worked at the United Nations, World Bank and Citibank, she has earned the nickname"Iron Lady" for her tough political style. She was initially a supporter of warlord and former president Charles Taylor.

CHARLES BRUMSKINE (Liberty Party): Brumskine, 54, is a professor of law and former leader of the Senate under Taylor’s rule. He was critical of Liberian involvement in wars around West Africa and split with Taylor in 1999, flying into exile in the United States before returning in 2003 to challenge him in elections originally slated for the end of that year.

VARNEY SHERMAN (Coalition for the Transformation of Liberia): Sherman, 52, is a Harvard-educated corporate lawyer who currently serves as special envoy and general counsel to the transitional government. He is widely seen as the candidate backed by Liberia’s transitional leader, Gyude Bryant.

ROLAND MASSAQUOI (National Patriotic Party): Massaquoi is running for the party of exiled former president Taylor and is widely regarded as his protege. He served as Taylor’s agriculture minister and later minister of planning and economic affairs.

WINSTON TUBMAN (National Democratic Party of Liberia): The nephew of Liberia’s longest-serving president, William Tubman, Winston Tubman is a Harvard and Cambridge graduate who has worked extensively for the United Nations, most recently as special envoy in Somalia. He is a former foreign minister.

TOGBA-NAH TIPOTEH (Liberian People’s Party): A veteran opposition figure, Tipoteh founded the Movement for Justice in Africa which advocated human rights and democracy during Liberia’s one-party era. He was a minister under former
ruler Samuel Doe, but fled into exile in 1981 after accusing the president of corruption.

SEKOU CONNEH (Progressive Democratic Party): Conneh led Liberia’s largest former rebel movement, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), in its fight against former president Taylor. LURD was a force made up mostly of child soldiers brandishing grenade launchers and Kalashnikovs. He is seen as an outsider.

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