A poll worker walks past ballot boxes as he helps organize election materials being brought in from polling stations, at a National Election Commission warehouse in Monrovia, Liberia Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011. International and local election observers said Liberia's presidential election Tuesday was peaceful and there were no reported serious breaches in voting.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A poll worker walks past ballot boxes as he helps organize election materials being brought in from polling stations, at a National Election Commission warehouse in Monrovia, Liberia Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011. International and local election observers said Liberia's presidential election Tuesday was peaceful and there were no reported serious breaches in voting.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Poll organize ballot boxes and election materials as they are brought in from polling stations after counting at a National Election Commission warehouse in Monrovia, Liberia Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011. International and local election observers said Liberia's presidential election Tuesday was peaceful and there were no reported serious breaches in voting.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Poll workers stack ballot boxes and election materials as they are brought in from polling stations after counting at a National Election Commission warehouse in Monrovia, Liberia Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011. International and local election observers said Liberia's presidential election Tuesday was peaceful and there were no reported serious breaches in voting.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Party observers look on as presidential ballots are counted at a polling station in the G.W. Gibson school, in Monrovia, Liberia Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011. Liberian voters queued for hours in the rain Tuesday morning as they waited to vote in Liberia's presidential election, expected to serve as a referendum on the performance of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first democratically elected female head of state. Sirleaf faces stiff competition from opposition party ticket Winston Tubman and George Weah. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Poll workers count presidential ballots as night falls at a polling station on the grounds of the Liberia Electricity Corporation, in the West Point neighborhood of Monrovia, Liberia Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011. Liberian voters queued for hours in the rain Tuesday morning as they waited to vote in Liberia's presidential election, expected to serve as a referendum on the performance of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first democratically elected female head of state. Sirleaf faces stiff competition from opposition party ticket Winston Tubman and George Weah. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) ? Voting officials counted ballots Wednesday in Liberia's second postwar election, pitting the country's Harvard-educated president who just won the Nobel Peace prize against a soccer star who just completed college this year.
Official preliminary results are not due until Thursday, but a media consortium that had sent observers to a large number of polling stations said that incumbent Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's Unity Party was leading. With just over 160,000 ballots counted ? representing nearly 10 percent of registered voters ? Sirleaf was leading with 50.5 percent.
Sirleaf, who is Africa's first democratically elected female leader, needs to get more than 50 percent of total votes in order to avoid a runoff, though most observers are expecting the race to go to a second round.
The party of former FIFA Player of the Year George Weah had around 40.8 percent, while former warlord Prince Johnson, now a senator, had around 8.5 percent, according to unofficial results tabulated by the Liberia Media Center that were released Wednesday. Weah is running as the vice president on a ticket with former minister Winston Tubman.
International and local election observers said the election on Tuesday was peaceful, and there were no major breaches in voting and no serious incidences of violence.
Liberia is recovering from a horrific 14-year civil war that ended in 2003, and Sirleaf shared last week's Nobel Peace prize for her nonviolent struggle on behalf of women and for helping maintain peace in Liberia since she took office nearly six years ago.
"Overall, the process unfolded in a quiet atmosphere with no incidents reported thus far," the Chairman of the National Elections Commission James Fromoyan told a news conference late Tuesday. "The day was peaceful and calm."
In a statement released in New York, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the election "an important milestone" and described the voting as "smooth."
His observations were echoed by the head of the 150-member Economic Community of West Africa delegation, Attahiru Jega.
"From the reports that we have received," he told reporters. "The election has been peaceful and has been conducted in an orderly manner."
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