Football great George Weah has taken a leap over Liberia's foremost female politician Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, while little-known educator Joseph Korto surprisingly came second, the elections commission said on Wednesday, after the first day of official vote counting and tallying in west African country's first post-war elections.

"The three leading candidates at the moment are George Weah at 27.5 percent, Joseph Korto at 18.5 percent, and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf at 16.7 percent," said Frances Johnson-Morris, chairman of the National Elections Commission (NEC).

But this is only a small partial figure of the final electoral results, Johnson-Morris said, as only 34,901 votes, from the 102 of the 3,070 polling stations, have been counted and tallied so far.

Earlier in the day, Weah was placed second to Johnson-Sirleaf with 21.2 percent below the latter's 24.6 percent of the 12,835 votes, while Dark horse Korto, a former district education officer for the northern county of Nimba was in the fifth place.

Many still believe that Korto would not keep the upward trend and that the final two front-runners would still be 39-year-old Weah and 66-year-old Johnson-Sirleaf. As more votes are counted, it's likely that a seesaw battle between Weah and Johnson-Sirleaf, in a field of 22 presidential candidates, will be witnessed.

But analysts predict that neither of them is likely to secure over 50 percent votes to become the president in the first round as required by the electoral law and that they may have to go to the second round in early November.

Ballots counting will take three to seven days and that the NEC will announce preliminary tally results through its daily press conferences as they become available. Official results are expected by October 26.

Weah, 39, gained his popularity from the national football team as a star player and from his success from a professional career in Europe where he won the FIFA World, African, and European Player of the Year awards in 1995.

Weah, who did not complete high school, is however seen by many Liberians as a patriot and one who loves and believes in his country.

Harvard-trained Johnson-Sirleaf, 66, nicknamed Iron Lady, is a former finance minister in the William Tolbert government in 1979 and a former head of the UN Development Program African region.

She is also well known internationally and is seen as one with whom the international community is comfortable of doing business. If elected, she would be the continent's first elected female head of state.

Large number of the 1.3 million registered voters walked through muddy roads and braved hot sun to cast their ballots on Tuesday, the first since the end of Liberia's brutal civil war starting from 1989 that killed about 250,000 people, eight percent of its population.

UN special envoy Alan Doss hailed the polls was conducted with "complete absence of violence" and said he was "struck by the patience, the determination, and the friendliness" displayed by all voters.

But seven people tried to vote twice and were arrested during Tuesday's elections, Johnson-Morris said, adding no incident of violence was reported.

A total of 94 legislators from 718 candidates will also be elected. It's expected that the fresh leadership ending the west African nation's two-year interim period would restore peace and jump-start development in a country rich in diamond, gold, timber, iron ore and rubber as well as fertile soil.

(Xinhua News Agency October 13, 2005)