The Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) national publicity secretary, Victor Reider, has stated that “now that Margai is gone the SLPP is going to win.”
Speaking to Awoko at the party’s Lightfoot Boston Street head office, Mr Reider explained that, “if you know the political history of Charles Margai he has never been able to win an election.”
“We are sure of wining the elections; it is a straight fight now [between APC and SLPP].” said Mr Reider.
Asked why he sounded so certain, the SLPP national publicity secretary said, “those people whom he depended on, who gave him that 14% would be voting for the SLPP, because they now know that Charles Margai was fighting not only to destroy the SLPP as it were, but more so for himself, that was why he did not dialogue with them [PMDC supporters] before he made the pronouncement, as was testified in the report given by the BBC reporter [yesterday] morning that the financial secretary of the PMDC disclaimed the position that was pronounced by Margai in his alliance with the APC.”
He explained that the reason for trailing behind the All People’s Congress (APC) in terms of votes cast, “was that the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) had a slice of what used to be our votes in the south and east; in the north our expectations were unfortunately not what they turned out to be, so naturally we fell behind the votes of the APC.”
He maintained that, “the cloud is now clearer we are now fighting a straight fight, we do not have a situation were some political parties other than ourselves would be now depending on our base.”
Mr Reider heightened that, “don’t forget also the people in the north most of them regretted the outcome of this result by the feedbacks we are having.
so they are going to ensure this time around that they give Sierra Leone the government it deserves.”
The SLPP publicity secretary explained that they were not expecting a second round because “we thought it was going to be a peaceful election free of violence,” adding that this was not the case as “our polling agents were intimidated.”
Mr Reider alleged that the APC created pandemonium, but noted that “the SLPP is waiting until the finial results are announced so these anomalies would be highlighted to the international community”. He revealed that at no time did they approach Charles Margai for a political compromise, but also noted, “it is possible that some personal contacts were forged.”