International observers have preliminarily regarded Tuesday's presidential run-off in war-torn Liberia, the first since the end of its 14-year civil war, as " peaceful and orderly."

A 28-member multinational delegation, headed by former Nigerian vice president Alex Ekwueme and including representatives from north America, Africa and Europe, is observing the process of the election between football legend George Weah and "Iron Lady" Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

"So far, the polling has been peaceful, quiet, orderly and is being held in a cordial and friendly atmosphere," Christopher Fomunyoh, a senior associate for Africa of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), told Xinhua at a polling center in the Monrovia suburbs of Congo Town.

The director for democracy program for the Carter Center, David J. Carroll, also said, "if the election ends successfully, it would be important for Liberia and the region."

"Good will and strong support for Liberia," Carroll added, " would trickle if the process goes well."

The NDI and the Carter Center are nonprofit international organizations, working to strengthen and expand democracy and promote peace worldwide.

NDI's Fomunyoh therefore said he hopes that the electoral process in Liberia would be "free, fair and credible and accepted by all parties as such."

With this, the NDI official said while continuing their support for freedom and liberty through the country's democratic institutions and those that would be established after the election, they hope that the new national assembly would "work in the interest of the citizens in guaranteeing good governance."

Much of Liberia's social-political problems have been due to bad governance, which has most often led to struggle for state power.

In 1980, some 17 military men, led by sergeant Samuel Doe toppled the civilian regime of president William Tolbert, following which, under pressure for democratic rule, the military regime of sergeant Doe conducted national elections in which he contested and won under "suspicious circumstances."

Efforts to have Doe removed from power led to the 14-year 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 has led to a two-year power- sharing transitional government and a UN Security Council authorization of 15,000 United Nations peacekeeping troops, whose presence in the country has stabilized the situation, creating an environment for the national elections.

The elections would bring to an end the transitional power- sharing arrangement next January 16th.

Former FIFA player of the year Weah and former World Bank executive Johnson-Sirleaf are contesting in the run-off following the October 11 polls in which they led in a pack of 22 presidential candidates.

Thirty-nine-year-old Weah got 28.3 percent of the votes while the Harvard-trained and 66-year-old Johnson-Sirleaf got 19.8 percent during the first round described by observers as "free and fair" and "free from fear."

Source: Xinhua