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Liberia Page |
Welcome to ElectionInfo.com's pages on Liberia
Official Name: Republic of Liberia
Capital: Monrovia
Area: 97,750 square kilometres (37,741 square miles)
Major cities (Population): Monrovia 670,000 (1990)
Population: 3,039,000 (1995 estimate)
Population growth rate: 3.3 per cent (1990-1995 average)
Type of government: Republic
Independence: 26 July 1847
Constitution: 6 January 1986
Voting Rights: Universal at age 18
Government
The 1986 constitution calls for a president to be elected to a six-year term by universal adult suffrage. The bicameral legislature is made up of a 26-member Senate and a 64-member House of Representatives, also elected by universal adult suffrage.
A civil war since 1989 has rendered the structure of the central government unstable. A transitional governing body, the Council of State, was installed in September 1995, but the agreement that had created the body soon broke down. A new chairwoman for the Council of State was announced as part of an August 1996 peace accord.
Recent History
In April 1980, Master Sergeant Samuel Doe launched a successful coup, becoming head of state after the assassination of President William Tolbert. He won presidential elections, widely denounced as fraudulent, in 1985. Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) attempted to overthrow Doe’s government in 1989, and civil war soon broke out. A multinational West African peacekeeping force arrived in Liberia in 1990, but failed to halt the fighting. A rebel group that split off from the NPFL captured and executed Doe in September 1990.
Between 1989 and 1995, tens of thousands of Liberians were killed and hundreds of thousands fled to neighbouring countries. Peace agreements and ceasefires failed, and international pressure mounted for a permanent end to the fighting. The United Nations (UN), which had operated a peacekeeping force in Liberia since 1993, had threatened to end its Liberian mission unless an agreement was reached by 15 September 1995. West African nations, which had undertaken peacekeeping duties since 1990, had also expressed displeasure with the ongoing war and had threatened to withdraw their troops. Another ceasefire was finally signed in August 1995. On 1 September 1995, the leaders of the country’s three largest rebel groups entered the capital of Monrovia to take their positions as part of a transitional government. The rebel leaders—Charles Taylor of the NPFL, Alhaji Kromah of the United Liberation Front of Liberia for Democracy, and George Boley of the Liberian Peace Council—were joined at the ceremony by several prominent leaders from other African nations, including President Jerry Rawlings of Ghana. The transitional governing body, called the Council of State, included three civilian members in addition to the three rebel leaders. Democratic elections were planned for 1996.
The plan for peace soon broke down, however, and fighting broke out again in Monrovia in the spring of 1996. Another peace agreement was reached in August 1996. The agreement proposed Ruth Perry, a former senator, for chair of the Council of State, which would govern until elections were held. Perry thus became the first female head of state in modern Africa. However, fighting continued and it remained unclear when factions would disarm and peace could really be established.
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