"We're being ignored", say voters outside the capital

Liberians living outside the capital are complaining about being neglected by presidential candidates, bent on pouring resources into capturing the Monrovia vote but making only fly-by-night visits to the rest of the country. "Our would-be presidents think that Monrovia is the whole of Liberia," said Johnny Smith, a shoe repairer in the central town of Gbarnga. "None of them has taken time off to tell us in detail how Liberia or our county will be developed." Further north, in the village of Palala, 59-year-old Kemah Farzue was also critical of candidates making fleeting visits. "When they are passing in their cars, they either drop T-shirts or photos, but none of them has stopped to sit or talk with us," she told IRIN with a sigh. Observers say it is not surprising that politicians have focused so much attention on the capital. Firstly that's where a large chunk of the votes are. Of the 1.35 million Liberians registered to vote in the 11 October polls, more than a third are in Monrovia and the surrounding Montserrado County, partly because thousands of people who flocked to the capital during the 14-year war stayed on when peace arrived in August 2003. Another major factor in politicians getting out to all areas of the country is access. Liberia, a heavily-forested nation, has only two paved roads, rains have turned its other dirt tracks into muddy quagmires, bridges are still in ruins and some people are forced to travel by canoe just to reach a doctor. "Candidates were already talking in May about concentrating their campaigns on the 'Monrovia-Ganta' corridor," the Brussels-based think tank Crisis Group said in a report this month. The four counties of Montserrado, Margibi, Bong and Nimba that lie along this route -- one of the two paved roads -- are home to two-thirds of registered voters. However, an IRIN correspondent who travelled from Monrovia to Ganta this week found that even along this presumed campaigning axis, once you got outside the capital people felt they were being sidelined by the wannabe presidents. And complaints came not only from residents of the smaller villages dotted along the road but also from those living in the main towns of Gbarnga in Bong County, a key stronghold for former president Charles Taylor, and Ganta in Nimba County. Posters and convoys "They only sent their campaign posters to us here," said Jimmy Dahn, a youth leader in Ganta. Dotted around the town are posters for just five of the 22 presidential candidates -- former international soccer star George Weah; veteran opposition leader and former UN official Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf; one-time deputy Senate leader Charles Brumskine; Varney Sherman, a corporate lawyer and confidant of the interim head of state; and Roland Massaquoi, the man carrying the flag for Taylor's old party. "When they (the candidates) do come, they just ride around in long convoys with loud speakers saying 'Vote for me' without telling us what they have for Liberia," Dahn said. Analysts from the Carter Centre and the National Democratic Institution, who are supplying some of the 200 international election observers, note that most of Liberia's political parties have developed around the personalities of key leaders rather than around policies. "Party organisation is centralised within Monrovia and very few parties have sufficient resources or organisational structures to campaign at the grassroots level," they wrote in a pre-election report earlier this month. "With so many registered political parties participating in the elections and a centralised system with limited resources to disseminate messages, many voters are confused as to the differences among the parties," the report said. Almost every resident you meet in the interior says they are yearning to see the candidates' platforms made public, particularly when they cannot attend the mass rallies where pledges are made in Monrovia. "We too here in the interior are voters and we cannot be treated differently," said Martha Bartuah, taking a break from selling cassava at the main market in Gbarnga. Peace, jobs, roads, schools and hospitals. The list of what Liberians want is identical wherever you go. But while everyone in the interior can reel off their wishes and hopes for this war-scarred country, ask them who they will vote for and many will admit they still haven't decided. "Those who are running for the presidency must now start to make their platforms public so we can choose who really wants to transform this country," said cassava seller Bartuah. Some residents worry that the lack of interest in more rural areas in the build-up to the election will be translated into indifference to their plight after the ballot. "When they are lucky to be elected, they may not even step here again," said Smith, the shoe repairer from Gbarnga. "How will they know our problems?"