A two-way opposition
The largest opposition party, the Sierra Leone’s People’s Party (SLPP), has dominated the political landscape in Sierra Leone along with the current ruling All People’s Congress (APC). The SLPP came into existence in 1951 and agitated for independence from Britain, won in 1961. It has been in active opposition to the ruling APC, formed in 1960.
Housing, Kroo Bay, Freetown 2008.
© Debra Percival
Each has its respective stronghold, the SLPP amongst the population in the south and east amongst the Mende ethnic group, which makes up roughly 30 per cent of the population. Most of the APC’s supporters are found in the north and west amongst Temnes who also make up 30 per cent of the population.
The SLPP won 43 seats at the last parliamentary elections in August 2007. It maintains its candidate won the 8 September 2007 presidential run-off elections: “From all indications, we won the elections. For reasons best known to the Electoral Commission, we were robbed of that victory. Four hundred and seventy-seven stations in our stronghold were cancelled and never read,” the party’s National Administrative Secretary, Brima Koroma, told us in his Freetown office in February.
His declaration is in spite of both the Parliamentary and Presidential elections being declared “free and fair” by a multitude of international election observers present, including those from the EU.
Former SLPP President, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, was in power for 11 years prior to stepping down before the 2007 elections: “Our first priority as a party was that people give us a mandate to return to peace. This was our pledge. Having said that, we won the election in 1996 and had to run the country from exile 1996-1997. We set our target to end war, which was delivered,” said Koroma.
He went on to add that the SLPP government successfully reconstructed the country when war officially ended in 2000: “It took a whole lot of our time to repair damage and devastation in the provinces. There were no hospitals or schools. Benchmarks were achieved. In 2002, the economy of the country was stable, even the leone [currency] compared to the dollar.” He said the SLPP government reintroduced local councils in 2004. Things now are “unimaginably difficult,” Koroma said, singling out the high cost of rice.
A third power
The Peoples’ Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) holds 10 parliamentary seats and four ministerial posts – in return for backing the APC in the September presidential run-off, explained its secretary general, lawyer Ansu Lansana. His party gives Sierra Leoneans a third choice: “The two have been playing political ping-pong for quite a long time so our people have been clamouring for a third force.” PMDC supporters are largely “…disaffected, unemployed and abandoned Sierra Leoneans,” Lansana told us.
He said the 11 years of former SLPP rule were characterised by gross inefficiency: “A leadership that was also too preoccupied with old politics where your grandfather and father were born SLPP, so you must be SLPP. This kind of approach to politics is detrimental to national development because it does not encourage governance by performance.”
And his opinion of the new government: “The only problem I have is that they have started reneging on some of their campaign promises. My perception of the country is one of guarded optimism. Because there are certain things that are positive and forward-looking but there are others that are still reminiscent of the past: joblessness and disorderliness …”
* 12 paramount chiefs, one for each district of the country, also sit in parliament
