‘Iron Lady’ may be Africa’s first woman president

Her rival, millionaire soccer star George Weah, had 40.9 per cent from Tuesday’s election in the West African state, still recovering from a 14-year civil war that devastated the country and killed a quarter of a million people.

“I think the trend is now irreversible,” 67-year-old Johnson-Sirleaf, widely known in Liberia as the “Iron Lady”, said.

“Just my own performance … is going to raise the participation of women not just in Liberia but also in Africa. It’s a big challenge but I’m looking forward to it.”

Former AC Milan striker Weah, 39, whose rags-to-riches career is widely admired by Liberia’s poor youths, had earlier filed a formal complaint of fraud with the electoral commission and international observers who monitored voting.

He said the poll, the first since the civil war, was riddled with irregularities, including doctored ballots.

“I hope that … Mr Weah will see reason, will accept the result, which I believe reflects the choice of the Liberian people,” said Johnson-Sirleaf, adding she was ready to offer him a post in her government.

The presidential run-off was given a generally clean bill of health by international observers who monitored the ballot in Africa’s oldest independent republic, founded by freed American slaves in 1847.

The United States effectively endorsed Johnson-Sirleaf’s win by saying there had been few irregularities in the poll.

“On the whole … it was an orderly and efficient process,” US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters. But he said Weah’s allegations should still be investigated.