"PRESSURE rice, computer rice, Firestone!" cries Mamie Ballo, a stout, middle-aged woman wearing a traditional Liberian lappa, touting the nation's staple food at a bustling market near central Monrovia.

The rising price of commodities, including rice, has put off some of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's supporters in the capital. Liberians complain they can no longer afford basic food stuffs. A runoff on November 8th between Ms Johnson Sirleaf and Winston Tubman, a former UN ambassador to Somalia, could boil down to rice.

In 1979, then President William Tolbert increased the price of a bag of rice from $22 to $30 triggering a riot in which hundreds of demonstrators were killed. The following year Tolbert was executed in a coup led by Samuel Doe. Today Liberians pine for the days of warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor, when rice sold for $22 a bag, about half the price it sells for today (though double its value on the world market). A 100lb bag of imported firestone rice now sells for $42. Nearly 6 out of 10 Liberians live on USD $1.25 per day, according to the government's yet-to-be released Core Welfare Indicator Questionnaire.

"For this government, they have failed a lot. One cup of rice costs 120 Liberian dollars. My daughter can't eat. I can't eat. We need to eat three times a day but we eat one time," said Washington Alvin, a law student who voted for Mr Tubman in October 11th elections. Sensitive to the impact the price of rice could have on voting patterns, over the summer the government stockpiled six months' worth of the valuable grain. A series of executive orders waived customs duties on all but the most high-quality varieties. Libya was financing small-scale rice growing in Liberia's interior but pulled out after Ms Johnson Sirleaf broke diplomatic ties with Colonel Muammar Qaddafi in June.

Subsidising the price of rice would only promote corruption and smuggling, says Yuri Sobolev, the IMF's Liberia country representative. Because of government action, he continues, rice in Liberia is cheaper than in neighboring countries.

Rice importers say they are being squeezed by APM Terminals, a Dutch firm which took over the free port of Monrovia earlier this year and raised its handling fees from $3 per metric ton to $10 per metric ton. APM's managing director Brian Fuggle said the higher fees were imposed to recoup some of the costs of repairing the port, which was destroyed in Liberia's 14-year civil war.