LIBERIA'S Nobel laureate and President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, was heading yesterday for a run-off vote with her main rival, Winston Tubman, following the partial release of results of the polls seen as a test of the nation's fragile eight-year peace.According to a report by Agence France Presse (AFP), the country's electoral commission released a first batch of official results yesterday, giving Johnson-Sirleaf 86,874 votes (44.5 per cent), slightly ahead of her main rival Winston Tubman with 51,771 (26.5 per cent) and ex-warlord and senator Prince Johnson in third place with 26,394 (13.5 per cent).Only 195,175 votes have been officially validated and voter turnout so far was put at 70.2 per cent.Unofficial figures tallied by a media monitoring group collecting results posted at individual polling stations showed the same dynamic with nearly 400,000 votes counted.In third place, Johnson, who ordered and filmed the execution of dictator Samuel Doe in 1990, could prove a surprise kingmaker in an eventual second round of voting.'I will decide whom to support, I don't want to jump the gun, that's my trump card,' Johnson told AFP.However only 2.5 percent of official votes were in from Montserrado County, home to the capital and to one million of the country's four million people.A large swathe of Tubman Boulevard was closed off for the results announcement, with a heavy presence of UN soldiers and riot police and two helicopters circling overhead.The electoral commission has until October 26 to announce the final results.Polls chief James Fromayan said every ballot could be accounted for, after complaints of ballot stuffing by the opposition CDC.The party has complained ' but not through official channels - about a lack of clarity about the whereabouts of 800,000 excess ballot papers which had been printed, saying this was 'outrageous.'Candidates must win an absolute majority to claim victory and avert a run-off on November 8.Sirleaf was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize prize just days before Tuesday's vote, for her work in rebuilding the country and promoting women's rights after 14 years of civil war in which some 250,000 people were killed.She faces stiff opposition from Tubman, 70, a Harvard-trained lawyer who has said she does not deserve the prize.Tubman has accused Sirleaf of failing to bring about reconciliation and spotlighted her shady ties to warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor, saying not much has changed for the average person in a country with 80 percent unemployment.
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