Liberia's presidential elections look set for a second round as the latest tally from last week's vote shows former soccer star George Weah's lead is too narrow to win outright.
With results in from 84 per cent of polling stations across the war-ravaged west African country, Weah led the field of 22 candidates with 30 per cent of the vote.
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a former finance minister and World Bank economist, was in second place with 19.6 per cent of the vote. She would become Africa's first elected female president if she won.
Any candidate must gain 50 per cent plus one vote to win outright in the first round, otherwise a run-off will be held in early November between the two leaders.
National Elections Commission chief Frances Johnson-Morris declined to comment on whether a second round was now inevitable. An official announcement is due by tomorrow.
With Liberia's infrastructure in tatters following a brutal 14-year civil war which killed almost a quarter of a million people, many voters will face long journeys if they have to cast their ballots again.
Tuesday's presidential and parliamentary polls were the first in Liberia since the war ended in 2003 after former president and warlord Charles Taylor went into exile in Nigeria.
International election observers, diplomats and United Nations officials have praised the peaceful conduct of an election broadly judged so far to have been free and fair.
Africa's oldest independent republic, Liberia was founded by freed American slaves in 1847. It enjoyed relatively stability for well over a century becoming a centre for rubber and iron ore production.