Samuel Doe

=== New constitution and 1985 elections ===
A draft constitution providing for a multi-party republic was issued in 1983 and approved by referendum in 1984. On 26 July 1984, Doe was elected President of the Interim National Assembly.<ref>Europa World Year Book 1985</ref> He had a new constitution approved by [[1984 Liberian constitutional referendum|referendum]] in 1984 and went on to stage a [[1985 Liberian general election|presidential election]] on 15 October 1985.  According to official figures, Doe won 51% of the vote—just enough to avoid a runoff.<ref>Moran, Mary H. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=7sAa75hpdiMC Liberia: The Violence of Democracy]''. 1st paperback ed. [[Philadelphia]]: [[University of Pennsylvania|U of Pennsylvania Press]], 2008, 120.</ref>  The NDPL won 21 of the 26 [[Senate of Liberia|Senate]] seats and 51 of the 64 seats in the [[House of Representatives of Liberia|House of Representatives]]. However, most of the elected opposition candidates refused to take their seats.

The election was heavily rigged; Doe had the ballots taken to a secret location, and 50 of his own handpicked staff counted them. Foreign observers declared the elections fraudulent and suggested that runner-up [[Jackson Doe]] of the [[Liberian Action Party]] had won.<ref>Gifford, Paul. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=GFZ_TIc4q6UC Christianity and Politics in Doe's Liberia]''. [[Cambridge]]: [[Cambridge University Press]], 1993, 22.</ref> Also, before the election, he had more than 50 of his political opponents murdered. It is also alleged that he changed his official birth date from 1951 to 1950 to meet the new constitution's requirement that the president be at least 35 years old. Doe was formally sworn in on 6 January 1986. On the day of his inauguration as the twenty-first president, in the stadium, a show with several Liberian girls danced artistically in his honor with various hoops. Later, the dancers danced with maracas. Finally, the army paraded in line and the first they played a majestic orchestra.<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/tm3YynW2_XQ Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20150709182928/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm3YynW2_XQ Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm3YynW2_XQ| title = president doe | website=[[YouTube]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Doe publicly declared that if he lost the elections, he would not hand over power, and the army would carry out another coup in less than two weeks, a position that was harshly criticized by the international community and the political parties participating in the elections. Official results showed that Doe received a narrow majority of the votes in the elections, although the US State Department alleged widespread fraud.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dennis |first1=Peter |title=A Brief History of Liberia |journal=The International Center for Transitional Justice |date=May 2006 |url=https://www.ictj.org/sites/default/files/ICTJ-Liberia-Brief-History-2006-English.pdf |access-date=11 October 2022 |archive-date=11 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221011070456/https://www.ictj.org/sites/default/files/ICTJ-Liberia-Brief-History-2006-English.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>