Liberians celebrate as they hear the first results of the country's presidential elections. (Reuters)

MONROVIA, October 13, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Vote counting of Liberia's first presidential elections after 14-year civil war continued Thursday, October 13, as cheerful citizens were waiting for their next president, carrying high hopes for a better future.

"I've been up all night listening for preliminary results. I want to hear what happened in every county, in every precinct," Martin Kromah, 33, a cell phone repairman, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Kromah was one of excited residents in the Liberian capital who clustered around radio sets in shops and coffee places to hear early reports of voting tallies.

Radio reports said that former AC Milan striker and soccer millionaire George Weah, whose well-funded campaign had drawn huge crowds, and former finance minister Johnson-Sirleaf were leading the presidential race.

"It's like a see-saw. Some places it's Ellen, some places it's Weah, but in Monrovia George seems to be in the driving seat," Kromah said, citing radio reports.

Liberian voters cast ballot Tuesday in the country's first presidential elections since the end of the 14-year civil war in the West African country, which left quarter of a million people killed, hoping that the polls will cement future stability.

Twenty-two candidates are standing in the race, including Weah.

A second round, if no candidate secures an absolute majority, would take place on November 8.

A first official release of results, representing about one percent of the 3,070 polling stations nationwide, gave the edge to Weah's presumed top rival, former World Bank economist Sirleaf, Agence France Presse (AFP) said.

National Electoral Commission chairwoman Frances Johnson Morris said that of 12,835 votes officially registered, Sirleaf had earned 24 percent, with Weah at 21 percent.

Apart from the presidential candidates, there are also 718 candidates standing for the 30-seat Senate and 64 seats in the House of Representatives.

Weah stands a good chance of being Liberia's president. (Reuters)

Tuesday's elections in the West African country were hailed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who extended warm congratulations to the Liberian people for voting in a peaceful and orderly manner.

"The secretary general warmly congratulates the people of Liberia for the peaceful and orderly manner in which they turned out to vote in this historic election," Annan's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement, according to AFP.

"The United Nations will continue to work with the Liberian people to consolidate the peace and promote democratic development, good governance and the rule of law," he added.

The UN mission in Liberia, which fields a total of 17,692 personnel, including 14,692 troops, provided technical and logistical support to the polls, as well as security.

Mineral-rich Liberia, once one of the most prosperous countries in Africa, fell into a civil war in 1989 when ex-president Charles Taylor, then a warlord, launched an insurgency.

Taylor won elections during an interlude in fighting in 1997, but another rebellion broke out in 2000. Under heavy international pressure, Taylor stepped down and left the country in 2003 and a peace deal was quickly signed.

The 14-year civil war has left the West African country in tatters. Hundreds of thousands of refugees still live in relief camps of squat in buildings abandoned by the government. Unemployment has been estimated at 80 percent.