Concerned partisans of the main opposition All People’s Congress APC have raised the question that if the party’s former June 24 2023 presidential candidate, Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara, widely held to be the winner of the last poll, will end up becoming another Julius Maada Bio in the party for seemingly wanting to take a third stab as the flagbearer of the APC although his times to try according to the APC 2022 constitution ended with the past election.
Members and supporters of the APC are at odds as the party’s constitution, much like the SLPP’s of old, only allows partisans two tries trying to win the presidency of the country after which the partisan becomes an ex-officio member.
The party people say the only way Dr Samura Kamara can go for any further attempt as the party’s flagbearer is if he in the position of an incumbent presidential candidate.
Many have said they fail to see how this will happen as President Bio despite the obvious doubtful circumstances of his second presidential victory, which result is widely rejected by observers of the day’s polling event, seems well on his way to his second term despite the work of the Tripartite Committee set up to look into his win remaining inconclusive.
APC members and partisans say Dr Samura Kamara while trying to establish and so claim his stolen elections mandate may not succeed in his campaign as Bio seems to have been accepted by the international community after managing to hold on to power a year after Chief Electoral Commissioner, Mohamed K. Konneh announced him the winner of the June 24 presidential elections.
They pointed out that Bio after trying and failing to win the presidency after three failed attempts should have been an ex-officio member of the party, but after some real internal politicking the party and after the intellectuals in the party failed to punctuate him he became the surprise SLPP flagbearer for 2012 and for the 2018 elections that he won. People want to know if democratic breaches as it happened in the SLPP will be allowed to happen in the APC.
APC partisans said since Dr Samura Kamara failed to win the 24 June 2023 presidential elections they see no hope for him continuing as the party’s flagbearer for 2028 as Bio had done with the SLPP as the APC members are staunch in their obedience to the party’s democratic constitution.
The question now becomes what becomes of Dr Samura Kamara if he fails to make good on his promise to be declared the actual winner of the June 2023 elections. Although he has kept up with his advocacy several recent developments appear to have dampened his push. The recent approval by the US government of the MCC compact grant, which was tied to among other things a smooth, free, fair and credible elections process, and the involvement of the US in breaking the ground for a gas powered electricity generation plant appears like tacit acceptance of president Bio as the actual winner of the June 24, 2023 presidential elections.
Sierra Leoneans from all walks of life are vocal that with the western governments that were against Bio’s claimed victory now doing business with him despite the work of the Tripartite Committee still ongoing, Dr Samura Kamara no longer has the upper hand in the year old impasse.
Many have called for Dr Samura Kamara to stop his campaign and so accept this elections result as he did in 2018, which has already done. This brings up the question to his continuing to be the APC leader and presumptive candidate in the 2028 presidential election cycle.
Many supporters and members of the APC have said the time has come for the former flagbearer to make way for others much younger, very active and highly educated in the party to seek the party’s flag going forward. They have called the events of Bio’s win as another learning curve and that for the sake of continued peace and national cohesion for Dr Samura Kamara to quit his advocacy and give the party time to recoup and stop giving the people and his supporters deceitful hope that there is a light at the end of the tunnel in overturning the presidential election as announced by Mohamed K. Konneh, with the eventual outcome that Bio will step down from the presidency to make way for Dr Samura Kamara.
However, some of Dr Samura Kamara’s supporters say they have no problem with him making another attempt at the party’s flag, saying that his ‘victories at the polls were stolen’ and that he should be allowed another attempt to see a changing of the guard at State House.
Meanwhile, political observers have said they wait to see what happens at the party’s future delegates’ convention aimed at selecting the flagbearer to see if Dr Samura Kamara will remain popular enough to see the party bypassing its statutes on seeking the party’s flag for third term for a still very popular former flagbearer.
