The leader and Presidential candidate of the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) Charles Francis Margai has called on the people of Sierra Leone to be “peaceful prayerful and hopeful.”
Mr Margai made this call as he became the second Presidential candidate to be provisionally nominated in the ongoing nominations process for the August 2007 Presidential elections.
Mr Margai who was accompanied by his running mate Mr I.I. Tejan Jalloh told journalists after completing the process that “the process has gone on smoothly and I’m very pleased about the arrangement.”
He stated further “we pray that subsequent steps will follow what we have seen,” adding “if that happens then I believe Sierra Leone is on the right path.”
Questioned on what Sierra Leoneans should hope for from the PMDC, Mr Margai answered saying “Well I think from the very inception of PMDC all Sierra Leoneans or let me say 99.9 percent of them have been saying thank you to the almighty that there is a ray of hope, there is light at the end of the tunnel and believe you me like I said this nation has all it should take to move forward economically or otherwise.”
On the issue of whther enough time had been allocated for campaigning, Mr Margai said “For me even if the elections were to be called tomorrow we are ready I believe there is a very thin line between sensitization and campaigning, but I am of the fervent view that the party in power has already campaigned for us by not performing so it is just a question of going to reassure the people that come the 11th C.F. Margai will be taking the oath of office as the next president of this republic to solve their problems.”
On the issue of violence during the elections, Mr Margai said “Well from my party’s point of view we believe that the elections will be violence free but in the event of an occurrence of violence I’m sure the people of this nation are prepared to handle whatever eventuality occurs.”
Questioned on what he was basing his campaign on, Mr Margai said “Well my campaign really is going to be launched from two angles firstly to tell the people of Sierra Leone our God given resources and to tell them the state of Sierra Leone comparing Sierra Leone to the days of Sir Milton Sir Albert and to some extent even Dr Siaka Stevens compare those days to now and let us determine whether we need to move forward, we want to be static or we want to retrogress I’m sure they will all say they want to progress and make some sort of goodies from what we have”
On a last word to Sierra Leoneans Mr Margai said “Let’s be peaceful, let us be prayerful and let’s be hopeful.”