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 LONDON (AP) - Liberians voted on a Tuesday in November and will swear in their president in January — just like Americans. So far things have gone smoothly enough to count as a miracle after 14 years of civil war and chaos, but now the country has to ensure the election is no mere pantomime of Western democracy.
For all of Africa's strides toward democracy after decades of living under dictatorships, violence and fraud have been a feature of many of its elections this year. Ivory Coast, once a model of African statehood, is so torn by civil war that its Oct. 30 election was canceled.
But the continent also saw some of the real thing, and reason for hope.
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