Voter Registration Begins Ahead Of Crucial Liberia Poll

Voter registration has started today in Liberia ahead of crucial elections in October. BBC

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who came to power in 2006 as Africa’s first democratically elected female president, will be stepping down.

BBC Africa Live report continues:

Her deputy Joseph Boakai and ex-footballer-turned politician George Weah are two of the main contenders.

More than two dozen political parties have registered for the poll.

The acting director of communications at the electoral commission, Joseph Nyesuah, told the BBC that 2.5 million of the country’s 4 million people have been targeted to register for the poll.

Eager to be among the first to obtain their cards, people started showing up at some of the 2,080 centres in the early hours of the day whilst election workers were still setting up.

This will be the first vote conducted with only Liberians in charge since the end of the civil war in 2003.

Last July, the UN peacekeeping mission also handed over national security responsibilities to the government.