Dr Samura Kamara has been duly elected as the presidential candidate of the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) by a landslide victory of 1,382 valid votes.
While his closest competitor, Richard Conteh, polled a paltry 88 votes, the votes cast for all the 17 candidates who ran against Dr Samura Kamara, including void votes, totalled an insignificant number of 277.
The man widely presumed to be elected as Sierra Leone’s next president in the June 24 presidential elections, now has the herculean and uncomfortable task to mend fences with his Comrade who many say fought to hard against him. His biggest task will be to accept this resounding victory with magnanimity and work quickly to bring everyone on board a united and formidable APC.
It should never be lost on the APC that they are running against an incumbent that is fierce in its bellicosity as it is strategic in its operations and its capacity to organize what elections observers have described as criminal expeditions to rig the pools.
Though public opinion me be on the side of the APC, its victory at the polls on June 24, would be contingent upon the effectiveness of its campaign but more so, the elections machinery Samura Kamara and the new APC leaders would be willing to marshall. The critical element for the APC will be the quality of polling agents it will recruit and the extent to which these agents will be able to protect and ensure that every single vote cast in its favour will be counted! The APC must also make very good use of technology and thorough-bread media professionals to ably march and effectively counter the expected volume of negative propaganda – misinformation, disinformation and downright lies – the incumbent may deploy during this election cycle.
While the hall goes agog in a last minute bid for the running mate slot, this choice should not be driven by emotion without the benefit of foresight on the obvious implications relating to religion, electorate demographics, political experience and saviness on the dynamics of governing Sierra Leone. This is critical to prevent voter apathy especially in view of the fact that the margin that usually separates the APC and the SLPP is narrow. Even more so, these elections are going to a two-horse race between these to dominant parties.
The New APC 2022 stipulates that the Flagbearer shall select his running mate after consultation with its National Advisory Committee. The country awaits anxiously to see how the APC presidential candidate -elect would spring a master class first important decision in this four – month -journey of critical political decisions.
© Sheriff Mahmud Ismail
