ECOWAS observation mission head arrives Liberia for presidential run-off - The head of the 200-strong ECOWAS Election Observation Mission to Liberia, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has arrived in Monrovia ahead of the country’s presidential run-off on 8 Nov., an ECOWAS Commission statement obtained by PANA here Friday said.

Prof. Jega, Chair of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who also led the 150 ECOWAS observers that monitored the inconclusive 11 October first round presidential balloting in Liberia, will hold consultations with political stakeholders ahead the deployment of the enlarged ECOWAS observers from Sunday.

The observers, including members of the ECOWAS Council of Wise, Ambassadors and Experts from of member states and civil society organizations, will monitor balloting in all the 15 Counties in Liberia and the counting of votes in the 19 collation centres across the country.

Final results released by Liberia’s National Elections Commission (NEC) showed that none of the 16 presidential candidates that contested the 11 October 2011 first round balloting got the constitutional 50 percent plus one vote.

The run-off is between the two front-runners, incumbent President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of the United Party (UP) and Mr. Winston Tubman of the main opposition Congress for Democratic Change (CDC).

In its Preliminary Declaration, the ECOWAS Election Observation Mission had noted that “on the whole, the elections of October 11, 2011 were conducted under acceptable conditions of freedom of voters and transparency of the process.”

Ahead of the run-off, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Ambassador James Victor Gbeho, has urged Liberians to place the national interest above all partisan consideration and to ensure a peaceful electoral process for the sake of national and regional stability.

Pana 05/11/2011