Early results from Liberia's first post-war elections showed today that soccer star George Weah and former finance minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf may face a second-round run-off.
Liberians celebrate as they hear the first results of the presidential election at Broad street in Monrovia
Two days after Tuesday's landmark presidential and parliamentary polls, results trickled in slowly from a vote intended to draw a line under the West African country's brutal 14-year civil war.
With official results in from only 278 of the 3,070 polling stations, former AC Milan striker Weah lead the field of 22 presidential hopefuls with 23.7 per cent of the vote, ahead of Harvard-trained economist Ms Johnson-Sirleaf with 14.9 per cent.
"With the current trend, it is likely that there will be a second round," National Elections Commission chief Frances Johnson-Morris said.
Electoral officials have said a final result could take between three and seven days. If no candidate gains more than 50 per cent, a run-off will be held no more than two weeks later.
Liberians hope the polls will cement stability two years after a war that killed a quarter of a million people, uprooted almost a third of the population and left the country's infrastructure in ruins.