page_title: History of Liberia
section_title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf elected president (2005)
hierarchical_section_title: History of Liberia / Ellen Johnson Sirleaf elected president (2005)
caption_attribution_description: Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf waves to the audience at her inauguration in Monrovia, Liberia.
context_page_description: Liberia is a country in West Africa which was founded by free people of color from the United States. The emigration of free people of color, and later former slaves, was funded and organized by the American Colonization Society. The mortality rate of these settlers was the highest in accurately recorded human history. Of the 4,571 emigrants who arrived in Liberia between 1820 and 1843, only 1,819 survived.
  In 1847, the ACS encouraged Liberia to declare independence, as the organization could no longer support the colony against territorial incursions by the neighboring British and French. The ACS as well as several northern state governments and local colonization chapters continued to provide money and emigrants as late as the 1870s. The United States declined to act on requests from the ACS to make Liberia an American colony or to establish a formal protectorate over Liberia, but it did exercise a "moral protectorate" over Liberia, intervening when European powers threatened its territory or sovereignty.
context_section_description: The transitional government prepared for fair and peaceful democratic elections on October 11, 2005, with UNMIL troops safeguarding the peace. Twenty three candidates stood for the presidential election, with George Weah, international footballer, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and member of the Kru ethnic group, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a former World Bank economist and finance minister,  Harvard-trained economist and of mixed Americo-Liberian and indigenous descent.
  In the first round, no candidate took the required majority, Weah won this round with 28% of the vote. A run-off between the top two vote getters, Weah and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, was necessary.
  The second round of elections took place on November 8, 2005. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won this runoff decisively. Both the general election and runoff were marked by peace and order, with thousands of Liberians waiting patiently in the Liberian heat to cast their ballots.
  Sirleaf claimed victory of this round, winning 59 per cent of the vote. However, Weah alleged electoral fraud, despite international observers declaring the election to be free and fair. Although Weah was still threatening to take his claims to the Supreme Court if no evidence of fraud was found, Johnson-Sirleaf was declared winner on November 23, 2005, and took office on January 16, 2006; becoming the first African woman to do so.
caption: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
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