MONROVIA, Liberia (Reuters) -- U.N. helicopters and jeeps collected ballot boxes from across Liberia on Wednesday as local radio reported soccer star George Weah and a Harvard-trained economist emerging as frontrunners in the first post-war polls.After a big, enthusiastic turnout in Tuesday's presidential and parliamentary polls, expectation gripped the west African nation which hopes new elected leaders will build a more stable future after a brutal civil war that ended two years ago.Liberia's National Elections Commission said it expected to announce the first official partial voting returns on Wednesday evening, but cautioned that the final national results would take between three and seven days.The polls pitted former AC Milan striker and soccer millionaire Weah against former warlords, wealthy lawyers and a 66-year-old Harvard-educated economist, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who could become Africa's first elected female president.In Monrovia, groups of excited residents clustered around radio sets in shops and coffee houses to hear early reports of voting tallies posted by individual polling stations out of the more than 3,000 spread across the country."I've been up all night listening for preliminary results. I want to hear what happened in every county, in every precinct," said Martin Kromah, 33, a cellphone repairman.The private radio reports appeared to confirm predictions that Weah, whose well-funded campaign had drawn huge crowds, and former finance minister Johnson-Sirleaf were leading contenders."It's like a see-saw. Some places it's Ellen, some places it's Weah, but in Monrovia George seems to be in the driving seat," Kromah said, referring to the radio reports.But the absence of reliable opinion polls made the final outcome difficult to predict."Please be reminded that there are 3,070 polling places from which information must be compiled. The entire process is expected to take between three and seven days," National Elections Commission Chairman Frances Johnson-Morris told reporters.Electoral officials had already started counting votes through Tuesday night, using battery-powered lanterns.U.N. supportLiberians hope the outcome of the polls will cement future stability and leave behind the 14-year civil war that killed a quarter of a million people, uprooted almost a third of the population and left the country's infrastructure in ruins.Among the 22 presidential candidates standing is one representing the National Patriotic Party of exiled former President Charles Taylor, who triggered the civil war in 1989 and is seen as the mastermind of several West African conflicts.Taylor went into exile in Nigeria to end Liberia's conflict but he is wanted by a U.N.-backed court in Sierra Leone for war crimes. The court prosecutor said last week he had convincing evidence Taylor was supporting candidates for Tuesday's polls.Paul Risley, spokesman for the 15,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping mission in Liberia, said four U.N. helicopters and more than 350 U.N. trucks and jeeps were helping to transport tally sheets and ballot boxes from remote voting centers."Now it's just a question of getting everything back to Monrovia," he said.Apart from the presidential candidates, there are also 718 candidates standing for the 30-seat Senate and 64 seats in the House of Representatives.The presidential and vice-presidential candidates need 50 percent plus one vote to win, otherwise a run-off will be held between the two leading candidates no more than two weeks after results of the first round are announced.Blue-bereted U.N. peacekeeping troops, their rifles slung on their backs, helped load ballot boxes onto trucks after what was a generally trouble-free election.Johnson-Morris said no formal complaints had been lodged with magistrates so far against the electoral process.Some international election observers estimated a turnout of 80 percent.Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.