Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, presidential candidate of the Unity Party, greets Liberians after a church service in Monrovia, Liberia yesterday. Johnson-Sirleaf is poised to become Liberia’s next president.

A Kennedy School of Government (KSG) graduate is positioned to become the first female African president, after a fierce campaign culminated in a run-off election last week in Liberia.

With 99 percent of the ballots counted, 1971 KSG alumna and former World Bank economist Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf leads with 59.6 percent of the popular vote, although Liberia’s National Election Commission (NEC) will not officially call the election until tomorrow.

Even then, the result may not be certified until officials review allegations of fraud. Opposing candidate George Weah, a prominent international soccer star and a favorite among Liberian youth, formally challenged the election’s legitimacy yesterday.

Contingent upon her official confirmation as president, Johnson-Sirleaf has an immense task before her.

“I don’t think any [KSG graduate] has ever faced a bigger challenge than Ellen, because of the total deterioration of the state,” KSG Lecturer in Public Policy John W. Thomas said.

Thomas, who knows Johnson-Sirleaf both as a student from her time in Cambridge and from subsequent meetings, characterizes her as eminently qualified.

“She is highly intelligent and tough-minded,” he said, adding that she possesses both the international experience and credibility with international institutions crucial for political maneuverability.

Johnson-Sirleaf worked for years at the World Bank and within the United Nations. As Liberia’s finance minister, she narrowly escaped death when 13 cabinet ministers were executed by firing squad in a government purge in 1980. She also earned the moniker “The Iron Lady” for her fearlessness in challenging the warlord Charles Taylor for Liberia’s presidency in 1997.

The level of her education, particularly in contrast with Weah’s­—who did not graduate from high school—likely worked as an advantage with a population that prizes education, said Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy Robert Rotberg, who was a member of the U.S. Secretary of State’s Advisory Panel on Africa from 2003 to 2004.

But Thomas suggested that the Kennedy School of the late 1960s did not directly provide tools for political leadership, instead functioning more like a traditional graduate school.

“We have to hope she is a quick learner,” Thomas said.

Some Liberian analysts view her extensive bureaucratic experience as a liability. As a soccer player, Weah remained distanced from the governments held responsible for the Liberian war and its