MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Liberia’s president has urged voters to go to the polls this week and to ignore a boycott by the opposition.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf spoke Saturday to a hall packed with her supporters, dressed in green, the color of the Unity Party. She told Liberians: "Do not succumb to fear and intimidation."

Liberia’s leading opposition candidate Winston Tubman announced Friday he was pulling out of the Nov. 8 presidential runoff election. He told The Associated Press that he was boycotting the runoff because he was not convinced the process would be fair.

Sirleaf accused Tubman of violating the constitution. Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace laureate, won the first round but failed to reach the threshold needed to avoid a runoff.