--- title: A Nobel Prize Winner's Tough Re-election Campaign in Liberia | TIME description: Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf faces a tough campaign for re-election as she seeks a second term as President of Liberia. (A Production of the Bureau for International Reporting) canonical: https://time.com/video/4UNuCQhP/ og:title: A Nobel Prize Winner's Tough Re-election Campaign in Liberia og:description: Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf faces a tough campaign for re-election as she seeks a second term as President of Liberia. (A Production of the Bureau for International Reporting) og:url: https://time.com/video/4UNuCQhP/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/4UNuCQhP/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Nobel Prize Winner's Tough Re-election Campaign in Liberia twitter:description: Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf faces a tough campaign for re-election as she seeks a second term as President of Liberia. (A Production of the Bureau for International Reporting) twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/4UNuCQhP/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # A Nobel Prize Winner's Tough Re-election Campaign in Liberia > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: A Nobel Prize Winner's Tough Re-election Campaign in Liberia [Watch (HLS stream): A Nobel Prize Winner's Tough Re-election Campaign in Liberia](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/4UNuCQhP.m3u8) (6:22)  _Published 2011-10-10. Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf faces a tough campaign for re-election as she seeks a second term as President of Liberia. (A Production of the Bureau for International Reporting)_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:18 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Meet the Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize—Nihon Hidankyo](/video/8k7J1blx/) ### Meet the Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize—Nihon Hidankyo [Meet the 2022 Nobel Prize Winners](/video/jze0UEYZ/) ### Meet the 2022 Nobel Prize Winners [Nobel Prize Winners Studied How We Know Where We Are](/video/0wbhwIFu/) ### Nobel Prize Winners Studied How We Know Where We Are --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] In a suburb of Liberia's capitol, Monrovia, the crowds swell to catch a glimpse of their country's president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. My President! Officially, she's come out to dedicate a public latrine. But this is election season. And so every move Sirleaf makes is also political. In 2005, she became the first president to be elected in Liberia after decades of coups and civil war. She's now running for a second term. One of 16 candidates in a competitive race. It's been for us a struggle, but let me put it this way. We've come a long way. The first term was just strictly those fundamentals put into place. The structures, the systems, the laws, the strategiies. It's taking me longer than I had anticipated, because the capacity was so low.. [ SOUND ] Liberia's two civil wars, waged between 1989 and 2003, were infamous for extreme brutality. Drugged up child soldiers and chaotic rebel factions. 250, 000 people were killed, a million more displaced. By the time warlord president Charles Taylor was forced from power in 2003, the country was destroyed physically and emotionally. The whole moral integrity of the system, was undermined during these years of deprivation, during these years of war. Sirleaf's qualifications as a former international banking executive, and her standing as Africa's first female president, have made her popular in the world stage and attracted billions of dollars of donor aid and debt relief. We had an $ 80 billion budget, when we came in. That's probably a budget for one of your high schools. Our revenue has increased to enable us so we've rebuilt the, the streets and the capital which were awful, and the main ones. And now we're starting on the primary roads. We've restored, electricity in the capital city that was dark for 14 years. And today we're now adding more. There was no water, tap water. And we've restored that. We have made primary education compulsory and free. All of this has been underwritten by the security guarantee of one of the largest United Nations missions in history. At its peak, 15, 000 blue helmet troops and police. One of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's presidential opponents is lawyer Charles Brumskine. We believe that nothing we do in this country will matter if we do not reconcile. Yes, him. He says the country is made more vulnerable by the absence of a formal reconciliation process. After 14 years of war, Liberians remain divided or remain hurt. We are angry. We need a leadership that would have the moral authority, to bring our people together. Soon after she was elected, Sirleaf did create a truth and reconciliation commission that collected victim testimonies and named perpetrators for prosecution. But the final report also recommended that Sirleaf be barred from public office, because of her early financial support of warlord Charles Taylor. Had this report come forth without president Sirleaf being measured, by now, I bet you it would have been implemented. But because she was indicted nothing has been done about it. Regrettably that's not much coming from our friends even in the international community. So, we have the problem of beginning the process of reconciliation. I've never been worried to the point where we're not implementing it because I've been named or because I've been affected. No, there are other reasons it's moving slowly. There's other reasons it's moving slowly, the resources that it takes. The capacity. The report is very voluminous and the recommendations are many. [ SOUND ] Ultimately, it is the Liberian voter who will judge Shirley's record. [ SOUND ] During a first round of voting that set the date for the presidential elections and addressed several constitutional questions, the stage was already being set for a hotly contested race. I feel that the country is progressing. Development is going on, infrastructure development. School teacher Freeman Godu praised President Sirleaf's work on recovery, but is still deciding who he will vote for. Well, my own concern would be about some form of corruption. Corruption have brought this country down to its knees. So we want the government to be able to weed out the corrupt officials in government. Corruption is a long time problem in the country, but one that many voters feel has shown little sign of abating under Sirleaf's leadership. The government is corrupt. [ INAUDIBLE ] Liberian people, the young people no job creation, [ INAUDIBLE ] to make sure we're not gonna do [ INAUDIBLE ]. This election is being widely viewed as a test of the country's stability. The United Nations is waiting until after the vote to determine an end to its peacekeeping mission. Are you post- conflict? We are post- conflict. Is it guaranteed that we'll remain post- conflict and won't slip back, I cannot give that guarantee. Because we still have vulnerabiliites. But of one thing I'm certain. The majority of Liberians. Seeing what they can gain from peace to not want to go back to war. [ MUSIC ] As Liberians head to the polls this election day, there is more at stake than Sirleaf's bid for a second term. A democratic and violence- free election will be another important step on Liberia's delicate road to recovery. [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"A Nobel Prize Winner's Tough Re-election Campaign in Liberia","description":"Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf faces a tough campaign for re-election as she seeks a second term as President of Liberia. (A Production of the Bureau for International Reporting)","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/4UNuCQhP/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2011-10-10T05:08:24.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/4UNuCQhP.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/4UNuCQhP/","duration":"PT6M22S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/4UNuCQhP/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```