By Alpha Abu
The Nomination process of political party Presidential Candidates is continuing with smaller parties also presenting their candidates at the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) headquarters in the latter part of last week, for provisional approval.
The Revolutionary United Front Party (RUFP), United National Peoples Party (UNPP), Republican National Independent Party (ReNIP), and the Peoples Liberation Party have all presented their flag bearers and running mates at the commission’s Freetown office. They all signed the various documents and did the other formalities with the ECSL officials, to confirm their eligibility to run for political office.
RUFP’s presidential candidate is Dr. Abdulai D. Saccoh; his running mate will be Alice K. Pyne. UNPP will be having Dr. Saa Henry Kabuta as the presidential candidate and Gabriel Samuka as his Vice.
ReNIP’s Victor Williams and Kadija Bangura are both presidential and vice-presidential nominees for their party.
Peoples Liberation Party (PLP) will go to the polls with Nabieu Musa Kamara vying for the presidency and Saidu A.K. Mannah his running mate.
On Monday last week, the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Dr. Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara, and running mate Chernor Maju Bah were the first political party figures to go through ECSL’s mandatory exercise for those contesting in Sierra Leone’s General Elections scheduled 24th June this year.
The next day 2nd May, incumbent President Julius Maada Bio with Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh alongside him went through the same procedures at ECSL under the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) ticket.
Some 13 political parties have so far got approval from the elections body to take part in the polls.
The third largest party in the just-ended Parliament, Coalition for Change or (C4C) has been beset with defections- the leader of the party in parliament Emerson Lamina, and two of his colleagues have crossed over to the SLPP.
Also, the fourth party in parliament, the National Grand Coalition (NGC) of Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella has cemented an agreement with the SLPP in what both parties say is a ‘Progressive Alliance’, which effectively rules out Dr. Yumkella from contesting for the presidency under his party.
The June elections will be the sixth to be held since Sierra Leone returned to multi-party democracy in 1996, after years of one-party dictatorship.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (05/05/23)
