Liberia's football legend George Weah and political Iron Lady Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf prepared for the run-off after electoral official had declared Thursday as the start of the second round of campaigning for the two leading presidential candidates.

Weah, the former FIFA football player of the year, himself born in a slum, began his run-off election campaign by visiting the handicapped and street peddlers, assuring them that he would go the extra mile in catering to their needs because he fully understood their difficulties.

Weah has repeatedly pledged if elected, he would bring together all Liberians to sign a peace document in three months and restore running water, electricity and other basic social services such as reconstruction of roads which are in a deplorable state after the bloody civil war.

For her part, the Harvard-trained economist of the Unity Party Johnson-Sirleaf began her run-off election campaign with a visit to market women on the outskirts of Monrovia, where she is sponsoring a road project to alleviate them from selling their food stuff along muddy roads.

Later on in her campaign statement at her party's headquarters, Johnson-Sirleaf said: "The country is at a crossroad and you would have to decide in whose hand do you want to put your future." "I beg all Liberians to do their country a favor, come out on November 8 and vote for our country."

Liberians had gone to the polls on October 11 to elect a president and members of parliament, the first following 14 years of civil war which ravaged the country and was ended 2003 through a peace deal brokered by the Economic Community of West African States.

Results from the first round of polling gave 39-year-old Weah 28.3 percent of the votes while 66-year-old Johnson-Sirleaf got 13. 8 percent making them the two leading candidates for the run-off.

Liberia is estimated to have 85 percent of its citizens illiterate and an estimated unemployment rate of 80 percent in spite of its abundant natural resources such as gold, diamond, timber, rubber, iron ore and fertile soil.

Currently, the United Nations is maintaining peace in the country with 15,000 troops and more than 1,000 international police.

Source: Xinhua