Former soccer star George Weah's party today demanded a rerun of Liberia's presidential runoff vote, saying the poll he had lost was unfair.
Several people were hurt when Weah supporters hurled stones at police yesterday and United Nations police used tear gas and batons to disperse hundreds protesting at the US embassy in the capital Monrovia.
More than 500 youths, many wearing leaves and daubed with Weah's blue and orange campaign colours, staged a brief protest at UN headquarters today but dispersed after their leaders met with the mission chief Alan Doss.
With 99.3 per cent of votes counted, the National Elections Commission (NEC) gave Harvard-trained ex-Finance Minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf an unassailable 59.6 per cent, putting her on course to become Africa's first elected woman president.
International observers have given Tuesday's election a clean bill of health and urged all parties to respect the result.
But former AC Milan striker Weah's party has cried foul, saying the poll was marred by serious irregularities including doctored voting papers and ballot box stuffing.
African Union commission head Alpha Oumar Konare, a former president of nearby Mali, issued a statement today calling "on the candidates to accept the results of the polls as a clear expression of the will of the people of Liberia" and urged them to pursue any complaints through official channels.
From more than 3,000 polling stations, the NEC have quarantined two ballot boxes after irregularities were discovered, election officials said.
Weah's CDC has petitioned the country's Supreme Court to try to stop the counting process, now in its final stages, but the court told Weah's campaign team it could not consider the complaint until the NEC had investigated it.
Liberia's transitional government, formed two years ago to draw a line under a decade and a half of civil war, urged Mr Weah and the CDC to restore calm after yesterday's violence. W
Mr Weah appealed for calm in broadcasts on several local radio stations and asked his supporters to go home, the CDC's national campaign manager told Reuters.
Mr Doss, head of the 15,000-strong U.N. mission, UNMIL, spoke to Mr Weah about Friday's trouble, a UN statement said.
"UNMIL reiterates that it will deal firmly and decisively with any attempts, by any persons, who would seek to use violence to derail the elections process or to undermine peace or public order," it added.