02:28 GMT 21st December 2011
In the end, Johnson-Sirleaf garnered 607, 618 votes (90. 7 per cent) while those ignored who the boycott call cast 62,207 votes for Tubman, just 9.3 per cent of the ballot.
Had Tubman's supporters gone to the polls en masse and made their votes count, they would have had a bigger say about how Liberia is governed. Indeed, after years of fighting to enshrine democratic principles, the election was seen as the best opportunity for Liberians to finally achieve them. But the boycott put paid to this.
Now, those who turned their back on the election could easily find themselves at the mercy of Johnson-Sirleaf.
What Tubman's boycott has done is to raise the spectre of division in Liberia, something that ordinary Liberians do not want to see, having gone through a 14-year long civil war.
But the Liberian president, a seasoned politician, is wise to the ways of divisive politics. 'As a Nobel laureate, of course, I have to go the extra mile in promoting peace and reconciliation in our society,' she said. 'We are going to reach out to everybody and ensure that they have a participation in what we do.'
At the same time, she said Tubman had the right to challenge the result, but she was certain that it would stand because it met the requirement of the country's constitution and elections laws.
In fact, foreign observers said the election was free and fair. The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) backed the result, saying 'The mission wishes to state that it found no major irregularities in the voting process itself. It considers, on the whole, that the elections of 8 November met the acceptable conditions of being free, fair and transparent.'
Given the immense peacekeeping role the regional grouping played in Liberia during the difficult years, it had a special interest in ensuring that the country did not backslide. It invited Tubman to its headquarters in Abuja to encourage him to be part of the democratic process, but he declined.
Tubman had called for the boycott because he claimed that the first round in October was not fair and that he was not convinced that the second would be either. But he failed to provide concrete proof of electoral chicanery- and in the process shortchanged his supporters by using the boycott as a political weapon. He had tried to set the cat among the pigeons by claiming that the award of the joint Nobel Peace Price to Johnson Sirleaf before the frrst round of voting was an underhand move aimed at raising her chances in the election.
Boycotts these days are not employed in elections in Africa because electoral systems have been fine-tuned to ensure that foul play is reduced to the minimum. Also, the advances achieved in the mass media have ensured that a proper watch is kept on national elections commissions. Liberia's National Elections Commission (NEC) was therefore fully prepared for the task at hand.
Despite the boycott, the NEC believed that it had done a good job. 'Truly, we all have made history and have opened a new chapter that will help to consolidate our young democracy,' noted acting NEC boss Elizabeth J Nelson. 'To you the registered voters who spent hours in the rain and in the sun to be heard through the ballot box, we congratulate you for speaking out in such a refined and profound manner.'
This resounding endorsement notwithstanding, Johnson-Sirleaf is not leaving anything to chance. She has gone as far as to ask her coNobel Peace Prize winner, Leymah Gbowee, to head the National Peace and Reconciliation initiative. The move was a reaction to the preelection violence between police and supporters of the CDC that left one person dead.
But the man who told his supporters to back Johnson-Sirleaf in the second round, Prince Johnson, does not believe that the appointment itself is enough. 'What I think we need now is to have a reconciliation conference to heal the wounds. That is my thinking,' he said.
Liberians have gone down the conference road before - many times, in fact, when former warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor was in power. Whenever he was under threat from rebels he would call a peace and reconciliation conference in a bid to reduce the threat. But these parleys seldom worked - they were just talking shops. Indeed many saw them as a means of Taylor diverting attention from his problems, and in the end they achieved very little. They were also a drain on the country's finances. Gbowee should, therefore, not think about following Johnson's suggestion.
The task ahead could be daunting, and as such Johnson-Sirleaf will have to focus on security and economic development. The UN has maintained a peacekeeping force in Liberia since 2003 to bolster a ceasefire agreement ending a decade of war that killed nearly 150,000 people, mostly civilians.
Speaking on UN radio after her victory, Johnson-Sirleaf stressed that the UN would continue to play a crucial role in the country, with development support becoming the main focus of the world body's programmes as the need for humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping recedes. 'UN agencies will play a very important role in all the different spheres of operation that will add to our capacity, that will supplement our resources, so we can scale up the development work we are doing to be able to respond to the basic needs of the people,' she said.
'We will be moving away from a lot of humanitarian assistance and confidence-building measures,' Johnson-Sirleaf said. 'We will work with the agencies and programmes of the UN system on an appropriate exit strategy for the UN peacekeeping force.'
She said she envisioned engagement 'that will focus on development like agriculture through the Food and Agriculture Organisation and capacity building through the United Nations Development Programme. The UN children's fund [Unesco] has been very important in our programmes - they all have a role to play.'
But what the country needs most is foreign direct investment that could provide jobs and an impetus to the economy. During her first term, Johnson Sirleaf had managed to attract a number of top-rated investors in the extractive industries and agriculture that contributed to economic growth. She believes that during her second mandate, she will be in a position to maximise these investments.
Economic growth in 2010 was 5.6 per cent, slightly lower than the projected rate of 6.3 per cent. The growth rate for 2011 is projected to be 6.8 per cent. In May, the government submitted a draft national budget of $458.9 million for the 2011/12 financial year, which was 26 per cent higher than the previous year's budget. The UN reported that despite achieving the completion point of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative in June 2010, which reduced Liberia's debt stock significantly, the government had taken only a few concessionalloans.
Inflation was projected to be higher in 2011, at 8.1 per cent, compared to 7.2 per cent in 2010, reflecting the vulnerability of Liberia to global price increases of fuel and food, as it imports about two thirds of its food supply, the UN report said.
A recent survey found that domestic prices of essential goods, especially rice, rose by an average of more than 30 per cent over the last six months. Also, a 2010 Labour Force Survey estimated that 77 per cent of employed Liberians were vulnerably employed and unable to count on basic benefits or job security.
Following the government's decision to extend the poverty reduction strategy from June to December 2011, preparations have been underway to develop a framework for a successor programme. Led by the ministry of planning and economic affairs and the governance commission, 15 sectoral working groups were established to review implementation of the poverty reduction strategy and produce sectoral roadmaps for continued development of the country's economic, social and infrastructural sectors to feed into the second phase of the poverty reduction strategy, ultimately forming part of the Liberia Rising Vision 2030 Project.
But in the long run, it will be the private sector that will drive Liberia's economic development. One area in which the government can make a change is in fisheries. The country's coastal waters abound with fish, especially tuna. But the lack of a proper coast guard has allowed foreign trawlers, especially from Spain, to raid Liberian waters, depriving the country of much needed foreign currency.
In the end,Johnson-Sirleaf will have to take tough decisions to ensure that the repercussions of the election do not spread. She has to act more robustly against corruption, which many of her detractors said she failed to deal with in her first term. After all, she does not have anything to lose because she would not be seeking another term. So she can tread on as many toes as she likes- which is what ordinary Liberians want.
In the meantime former star striker George Weah, who was Tubman's running mate, should ditch him and prepare for the next presidential race. He has time on his side: he will only be 51 in 2017.
no comments
