With Sierra Leone's general elections just around the corner on June 24, 2023, the presidential race is heating up as political parties and their candidates make bold moves to win over voters. The political atmosphere is charged up with intense campaigns, strategic alliances are being formed, backed with manifesto promises as the front runners gear up to convince voters to give them the mandate to lead the nation for the next five years.
In all, the
electoral commission has gazetted the names of thirteen (13) presidential candidates
and parties who have come forward to contest the 2023 elections.
So far, two
candidates stand tall in the presidential race. They are Dr. Samura Kamara of
the All Peoples Congress (APC) and incumbent president Julius Maada Bio of the Sierra
Leone People's Party (SLPP).
The African
Elections Project provides a profile of the leading candidates and what they
stand for.
Dr. Samura Kamara of the All Peoples Congress (APC)
Dr.
Samura Kamara,72, was born in the town of Kamalo in the Karene District of the
northern province of Sierra Leone. Mr.
Kamara obtained his bachelor’s degree in economics from Fourah Bay College in
Freetown, Sierra Leone, and has a PhD in Economics from Bangor University in
North Wales, United Kingdom.
As a
policy technocrat, he has worked with the Commonwealth, the World Bank, and the
International Monetary Fund. He has also served in several political capacities
including foreign minister, finance minister and the governor of the central
bank of Sierra Leone between 2007 to 2017.
As
finance minister, Dr. Samura is credited with instituting practical policies
that resulted in the expansion of Sierra Leone’s banking sector.
In the
last presidential election in 2018, Dr. Samura Kamara was nominated as the
APC’s presidential candidate but was unsuccessful in his bid to become the
President of Sierra Leone after losing to Bio, a former military ruler who
had also lost a presidential bid four years earlier.
If
elected president, the leader of the APC pledges to expand access to education,
support small businesses to create jobs and unify the country.
Julius Maada Bio
of the Sierra Leone People's
Party (SLPP)
Julius
Maada Bio, 58, is the current president of Sierra Leone. Born
in Tihun, a village in the Sogbini Chiefdom, Bonthe
District, in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone, Mr. Bio was
elected into office after securing 51.8% of the total votes cast against his
then opponent, Samura Kamara. As the president of Sierra Leone, he claims he is
still committed
to transforming the country’s economy, advancing human
capital development, promoting
good governance, improving
infrastructure, and overhauling the financing of the public sector.
Prior
to being elected president, Mr. Bio was a senior research fellow at
the University of Bradford in the U.K. and was pursuing a doctorate
in peace studies. Bio has a long history of public service, beginning with
the Sierra Leone Army, where he rose to the rank of Brigadier. He was a member
of a group of military officers who led a bloodless coup in 1992 against the
regime of President Joseph Saidu Momoh. During the period of 1992–1996, when
the country was attempting to transition to democracy, he served as Head of
State in 1996 and oversaw the first democratic elections in Sierra Leone in three
decades. Following that election, Bio withdrew from the military and
temporarily relocated to the United States, where he pursued a Masters in
International Affairs at The American University in Washington.
Once
again, Bio will be running for the second time on the ticket of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), despite his
first term being marred by
economic hardship and rampant inflation in a country still recovering from the coronavirus
pandemic.
President
Bio has promised to boost food production, create 500,000 jobs and build an
efficient public sector in the second term of his administration.
CharlesMargai of the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC)
Charles
Margai, 77, hails from a family of Prime Ministers with his father and uncle
serving as Prime Ministers of Sierra Leone.
He is a lawyer and served a short stint as a former Attorney General of the
Republic of Sierra Leone in 2018.
Margai
has also served as a Minister of International Affairs and Local Government as
well as Safety and Security in 1998 and 1999 respectively.
This
is his fourth attempt to lead the country after placing third in the 2007
elections and failing at two other attempts in 2012 and 2018 on the ticket of
the PMDC which he formed in 2005.
Others
The
other candidates in the presidential race are Abdulai Saccoh of the
Revolutionary United Front Party (RUFP); Beresford Williams of the Republic
National Independent Party (ReNIP); Mohamed Bah of the National Democratic
Alliance (NDA); Iye Kakay of the Alliance Democratic Party (ADI) and Jonathan
Sandy of the National Unity and Reconciliation Party (NURP); Jonjo Mohammed of
the Citizen’s Democratic Party (CDP); Musa Kamara of the Peace and Liberation
Party (PLP); Prince Coker of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP); Mohamed
Sowa-Turay of the United Democratic Movement and Henry Kabuta of the United
National Peoples Party.
AEP
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