afrol News, 29 January - Mixed reactions have marred Liberia following the recent announcement by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf that she will run for re-election in 2011.

Ms Sirleaf has said that she had not realised before the 2005 polls how much rebuilding work needed to be done in Liberia. She became Africa's first elected female head of state after winning 53 percent of the vote.

A draft report by the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission said President Sirleaf should be barred from seeking further political office for 30 years.

However, the ruling party said Liberians trust her leadership, further stating that her announcement follows a petition by her supporters demanding that she contests the next year’s polls because she is fit to run the office.

A draft report from Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission last year said President Sirleaf should be banned from public office for 30 years because of her early support to former rebel leader Charles Taylor.

She has however admitted to giving him money, but testified that she was misled into supporting Mr Taylor and ended that support when she learned of the human-rights abuses in his campaign against then-president Samuel Doe.

Opposition politicians in the country have contentiously called on the president to respect her one-term limit, with several of them urging her to step aside and get prepared to relinquish the presidency in the coming electoral process.

The West African nation was relatively calm until 1980 when William Tolbert was overthrown by Sergeant Samuel Doe after food price riots.

A transitional government steered the country towards elections in 2005 after former President, Mr Charles Taylor resigned under international pressure in 2003 and went into exile in Nigeria.

Around 250,000 people were killed in Liberia's civil war and many thousands more fled the fighting. The conflict left the country in economic ruin and overrun with weapons. The capital remains without mains electricity and running water. Corruption is rife and unemployment and illiteracy are endemic.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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