Ebola-ravaged Liberia holds long-delayed Senate vote

Monrovia (AFP) - Liberians voted Saturday in long-delayed Senate elections in the Ebola-ravaged west African nation as UN chief Ban Ki-moon wound up a regional tour to assess the fight against the epidemic.

The vote for 15 of the 30 seats in the upper house of parliament had been postponed twice already as the epidemic swept the impoverished nation, killing more than 3,200 people.

It was originally scheduled on October 14, then deferred by two days and ultimately pushed back to December.

Balloting began at 7:30 am (0730 GMT) and is due to end at 5:00 pm. But polling stations opened late in many places in the seaside capital Monrovia and in several locations in the interior of the country.

Football star George Weah -- who played for Chelsea and AC Milan before retiring in 2003 -- and the son of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Robert Sirleaf, are among the 139 candidates in the running for a seat.

Weah, 48, ran unsuccessfully against Johnson Sirleaf for president in the country's 2005 election.

After casting his vote in northern Kendeja, Weah said he was sure of victory.

"I am more than confident that I will win... My victory was stolen from me in previous presidential elections. This time I will not allow it," he said.

Liberia was the country worst hit by the deadly virus until being overtaken by a recent surge in new infections in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

Liberia's Deputy Health Minister Tolbert Nyensuah said all voters would be tested and those with high temperatures asked to cast their ballots in a separate area.

- Voters have to wash hands -

Joey Kennedy, a spokesman for the national election commission, had earlier said that all voters would have to wash their hands before entering polling stations and maintain at least a metre's distance from each other.

Monrovia's streets were deserted on Saturday although there were long queues outside polling stations. Bars, offices and businesses were closed, an AFP journalist said.

The polls came as neighbouring Sierra Leone issued a clampdown on public gatherings and New Year festivities following a surge in new Ebola infections.

The UN secretary general was meanwhile in neighbouring Guinea on the last day of his tour of west African countries hit by Ebola.

With the United Nations system under criticism for an allegedly slow response to the virus, Ban started the tour in Liberia, the worst-hit country, after flying in from Ghana, where the UN Ebola mission is headquartered.

He pledged to help the affected countries rebuild their health systems.

"Today we have reason to be cautiously optimistic that this terrible outbreak can be defeated," Ban had said while touring Liberia.

"The spread of the virus is slowing down in Liberia. Our response strategy is working."

Ban is accompanied by Margaret Chan, head of the World Health Organization; David Nabarro, the UN coordinator for the fight against Ebola; and Anthony Banbury, the head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response or UNMEER.

The Ebola epidemic, which broke out in Guinea in December 2013, has killed more than 6,900 people, almost all of them in west Africa.