Liberians voted on Tuesday in a general election in which President George Weah is seeking a second term after six years marked by corruption allegations and abiding economic hardship.

Around 2.4-million people are eligible to vote in the West African nation.

Polls opened at 08:00 (0800 GMT) and will close at 18:00.

At the Kendeja polling station in the south of the capital Monrovia, where Weah is expected to cast his ballot, eager voters started queuing up hours before it officially opened.

"I am here to elect a good leader who will lead our country. A leader that will make school fees affordable for children to attend," said voter Nanny Davies, a mother of six who sells fish at a nearby market, queuing alongside hundreds of others.

The electoral commission will begin releasing provisional results on Wednesday. To avoid a runoff, the winner must secure 50% of votes cast, plus at least one more vote.

Analysts believe the vote will most likely head to a runoff where Weah is likely to hold on to power.

Weah, 57, who turned to politics after a successful soccer career, says he needs more time to fulfil his promise to rebuild the nation's broken economy, institutions and infrastructure, pledging to pave more roads if re-elected.

He has faced criticism from the opposition and Liberia's international partners for not doing enough to tackle corruption during his first term in office. Last year, he fired his chief of staff and two other senior officials after the United States sanctioned them for corruption.

Elected in 2017 in the country's first democratic change of power in over 70 years, he is running against 19 other presidential candidates, with opposition leader Joseph Boakai, 78, of the Unity Party seen as his main challenger.

Weah defeated Boakai in a runoff in 2017. Boakai has campaigned on what he calls the need to rescue Liberia from alleged mismanagement by Weah's administration.

Wrapping up his campaign across the capital Monrovia on Sunday evening, Weah cast his first term as a success despite significant challenges.

Liberia is still struggling to emerge from two devastating civil wars between 1989 and 2003, that killed over 250 000 people, and a 2013-16 Ebola epidemic that killed thousands.

"I want peace. All our past leaders have come and failed us... We should not go back into war," said voter Cynthia Kollie.

"We have suffered too much."

Voters will also select members of the 73-seat lower house, and half of the 30-member senate.

Although campaigning for the vote has been mostly peaceful, sporadic clashes have broken out between supporters of rival parties, prompting the United Nation's rights office to express concern about election-related violence after two people were killed in September.