Initial results of the Liberian presidential run-off election due on November 8 between football great George Weah and female politician Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf would be announced the following day, the Liberian electoral commission said here Tuesday.

Close to one million of the 1.3 million registered voters turned out on October 11 at 3,070 polling centers to elect a president and 94 legislators, but neither of the 22 presidential candidates could obtain more than 50 percent votes required to be declared winner, thereby necessitating the presidential run-off.

Thirty-nine-year-old Weah, obtained 28.3 percent in the first round, accounting for 275,265 of the votes, while 66-year-old Johnson-Sirleaf obtained 19.8 percent, accounting for 192,326 of the votes.

"The NEC admonishes the two presidential candidates contesting the run-off election to encourage their party members and supporters to engage in a peaceful and orderly campaign," Johnson- Morris warned. "We also appeal to Liberians to turn out in large numbers on polling day to freely choose their next president."

International observers, including representatives from west African regional bloc ECOWAS, the African Union, European Commission, the Cater Center and the United Nations, have described the first round of elections as "free and fair" and " free from fear."

The November 8 presidential run-off election is expected to bring to an end two years of power-sharing transitional rule in the west African state following 14 years of civil war in which 250,000 people died and about one million made refugees.

The election is also a crucial part of a peace deal brokered by the Economic Community of West African State in August of 2003, between the warring factions when former Liberian president Charles Taylor was being deposed for allegedly being a destabilizing agent within the sub-region.

The United Nations Security Council deployed 15,000 peacekeeping troops and more than 1,000 international civilian police personnel, with the mandate to assist the two-year transitional administration to disarm combatants from all factions. .

About 103,000 former combatants have been disarmed with about two third undergoing academic and skill training programs, the UN Mission in Liberia had announced.

Source: Xinhua