| Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa’s first female head of state and Liberia’s 23rd president, was inaugurated on January 16th, 2006. Because no candidate polled over 50% in the first round of voting, a run-off election was held, in which Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf received 59.4% of the vote and Mr. Weah (famous footballer) received 40.6%. A former UN official, prior to becoming president Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf was a well known politician who came second to Charles Taylor in the 1997 presidential election. | |
| Under the 1986 constitution, amended in 1988, the president and vice-president exercised executive power, while legislative power was given to a 30-seat upper house (Senate) and a 64-seat lower house (House of Representatives), both elected for six-year terms. Just before the 1997 elections the term of all nationally elected representatives was cut to four years. The transitional government that took office in 2003 adapted the constitution to allow for a newly constituted 76-seat National Transitional Legislative Assembly (NTLA) to replace the previous legislature, and the positions of president and vice-president were suspended. However, the new government that took power in January 2006 re-established the executive and legislative branches of government as outlined in the constitution, so that the country now has a 30-seat upper house (Senate), a 64-seat lower house (House of Representatives), and a president and vice-president. |
| Judicial power is normally vested in the Supreme Court and its subordinate courts (statutory and customary), in efforts with standards enacted by the legislature. But, because Liberia’s judicial system is in a poor state following the end of the 14-year civil war in 2003, it lacks basic resources and skilled personnel. Many lawyers were forced to leave the country during the war period, leaving those in jail to await their trials. An ad hoc Supreme Court has been constituted by President Johnson-Sirleaf, which will preside until a new, restructured Supreme Court is operational. The chief justice of the ad hoc Supreme Court is Yussif Kaba. |
| The political party with the most seats in Congress is the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC). The party with the second most seats is the Unity Party (UP), which is President Sirleaf's party. The Coalition for the Transformation of Liberia (Cotol) is a coalition forming the Liberia Action Party (LAP), the Liberia Unification Party and the People’s Democratic Party of Liberia. Another main party is the Liberty Party, which was created right before the 2005 elections. The National Patriotic Party (NPP) is another main political party, and authoritarian tendencies and high level of corruption made it highly unpopular, in effect triggering the second civil war between 1989 and 2003. |