Liberia's general elections, the first since the end of its 14-year civil war, have been carried out free from fear, international observers announced Thursday.

"Liberian first of all made a judgment themselves about their own process," Max van den Berg, chief observer of the European Union Election Observation Mission, told a press conference, two days after Liberia held its first post-war elections with large turnout.

"Voters were provided with a wide range of political contestants, and in contrast to be elections of 1997 were able to cast their ballots free from fear."

Voters in 1997 went to the polls and elected rebel leader Charles Taylor out of fear that should he lose, he would go back to the bushes to continue the war.

From neighboring Cote d'Ivoire, Taylor waged a 14-year civil war starting from 1989 that killed the then president Samuel Doe and about 250,000 people. He was forced to leave for Nigeria in 2003 when rebels besieged the capital Monrovia, paving the way for a two-year transitional government.

The UN-backed War Crimes Court for Sierra Leone has indicted Taylor for crimes against humanity for his role in trafficking arms for diamonds to this neighboring country's rebels during its brutal 10-year civil war, which ended in 2002, known as the bloody diamond trade.

But, former US president Jimmy Carter, also one of the more than 400 international observers said: "If the election is successful, it would provide stability to Liberia and Africa."

Carter observed the elections as "completely free and fair." "It sets a good example for what can be done by other African countries," said Cater, who had set up a non-profit center in 1982 committed to advancing peace and health worldwide.

Earlier, Frances Johnson-Morris, chairman of the National Elections Commission, citing initial results, said that a second round of polling for Liberia's presidential election is likely.

"Should a runoff be required, massive voter education must be conducted," said a joint statement issued by the non-governmental National Democratic Institute and Carter Center.

"A major problem identified in the October 11 poll was the widespread need for voter assistance due to the lack of understanding of voting procedures and in many cases a lack of understanding concerning the nature of the choice among the candidates," the statement said.

Votes results tallied from 705 polling places of the 3,070 polling centers showed that football icon George Weah has maintained a three-day lead in the presidential poll so far with 26.5 percent, Johnson-Morris said.

Liberia's foremost female politician Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf came second with 14.2 percent while former senator Charles Brumskine was placed third with 11.5 percent, Johnson-Morris told a press conference.

Official results are expected by October 26. If none of the 22 presidential contenders secures more than 50 percent votes to win, a run-off between the two candidates with the highest number of votes, probably Weah and Johnson-Sirleaf, will be held in early November.

(Xinhua News Agency October 14, 2005)