Julius Maada Bio of the opposition SLPP is the new president of Sierra Leone, polling 1,319,406 – which is 51.82% of the total votes cast; and the ruling APC party candidate – Dr Samura Kamara, with 1,227, 171, which is 48.19% of the total votes cast.
The retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio was declared the winner and proclaimed as the president of the Republic of Sierra Leone.
Maada Bio was sworn-in and then took his oath of office, minutes after the declaration of the result as president by the country’s chief justice – Abdulai Cham.
The people of Sierra Leone are about to enter a new and interesting form of politics, which many of us have been advocating for: A democratic governance structure, where no one party controls both the executive and the legislature.
SLPP at State House, and APC forming the majority in parliament.
If this new form of power sharing is successful, and if it can be used to the benefit of the people in terms of controlling the abuse of power and providing effective oversight on budget allocation and spending, Sierra Leone could begin to see a rapid eradication of poverty by the end of the next parliament.
Many have described the new parliament as the best the country has ever had throughout its post-independence history.
There will be four main political parties wielding power in the new parliament.
The ruling APC taking about 63 out of the 132 parliamentary seats, the SLPP with about 48, Kandeh Yumkella NGC party with 4 seats, Sam Sumana C4C with about 8 seats.
The ruling APC could become a better opposition in parliament than the SLPP has been in the last ten years.
And it is hoped that with APC in opposition, they will not disappoint the poor people of Sierra Leone by encouraging, perpetuating and promoting the very culture of corruption that they have used to keep the people in poverty and darkness for so long.
But they should look forward to sitting on the opposition benches to reflect on their ten years of poor governance, and hopefully, learn to be better governors.
But time will tell and those journalists that do not accept brown envelopes from no one will be there to do the oversight, monitoring and fair reporting.