War-torn Liberia on Tuesday held presidential runoff between a political novice and football legend, and a celebrated politician and grandmother to decide who will lead the west African state out of mud.

Former FIFA player of the year George Weah and Liberia's "Iron Lady" Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf pulled the highest number of votes during the first round of polling on October 11 from among a pack of 22 presidential candidates. But neither of them could obtain the more than 50 percent required to win.

The former AC Milan striker, 39, got the highest percentage of votes at 28.3 percent while the 66-year-old former finance minister came second with 19.8 percent.

But this cannot help predict the outcome of Tuesday's run-off election, as both parties seem to be gaining significant and almost equal level of support from those who were defeated in the first round of the polls.

And it would not be until Wednesday, when the first progressive results are expected to roll in that a picture could be formed as to which one of the two candidates could emerge as the most likely winner.

Weah, who rose from the slumps by dropping out of high school to take up a football career and became a millionaire, has had to confront his limited education and experience in politics which many have referred to as factors contributing to his unsuitability for the presidency throughout the campaign during the past 10 days.

In response, he said on Saturday night's campaign: " qualification is not about credentials, it is about performance ... qualification is about changing people's lives for the better and not about personal gains."

"Trust me that I can push your policy on your behalf. I know great world leaders who are willing to work with me because of my honesty," he assured his supporters.

Weah's opponent, Ellen, as she is commonly called, is a Harvard- trained economist and former World Bank executive and said she has the "contacts and experience" to address the challenges facing the west African country that has been totally destroyed by 14 years of civil war starting from 1989.

The grandmother of six children believes she is the right one that can contend with the reconciliation among Liberians, the reconstruction of basic social services such as schools, health care facilities, roads, safe drinking water, electricity as well as reintegrating thousands of ex-combatants and the creation of job opportunities.

"I have worked with the World Bank and the United Nations and I have contacts there. Many of my colleagues in the UN and the World Bank know what I have done for other crisis countries," she said recently.

"I will work with the United States and the UN to restore security and address the needs of the country," Johnson-Sirleaf said. "I will ask for the UN peacekeepers to stay in Liberia for three to five years," she added.

No matter who wins, the run-off, as UN secretary-General Kofi Annan said, offers Liberians "an opportunity to elect a president to lead the country into a new era of peace, democracy and prosperity."

Liberia experienced a bloody civil war from 1989 to 2003 in which an estimated 250,000 people, about eight percent of its population, died and about one million made refugees.

An Economic Community of West African States brokered peace deal among the warring factions led to a two-year power-sharing transitional arrangement and a UN Security Council authorization of 15,000 United Nations peacekeeping troops, whose presence in the country has stabilized the situation, creating an enabling environment for the national elections.

The first round of elections on October 11 has been described by international observers as "free and fair" and "free from fear" with large voters turnout.

Source: Xinhua