Harvard-trained Iron Lady Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf takes a strong lead in Liberia's presidential runoff, initial results released Wednesday by the west Africa country's electoral commission show.

The former finance minister has 165,655 votes at 60.4 percent while her rival, former FIFA player of the year George Weah has 111,017 votes at 39.6 percent with votes from 1,006 of the 3,070 polling places counted, Frances Johnson-Morris, chairwoman of the National Elections Commission, told a news conference.

"According to the electoral law, the final and official results should be announced no later than 15 days after the election," Johnson-Morris added.

The voter turnout is 60.5 percent, according to the commission.

Liberia, founded in 1847 by freed American slaves, 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.

The war-torn state is emerging out of 14 years of civil war which had ravaged all of its basic socioeconomic and political infrastructure, and the election is seen as the country's last hope for a brighter future provided the election is conducted freely, fairly and credibly and whose outcome should be accepted by all Liberians, the international community has warned.

Source: Xinhua