Honourable Charles Francis Kondo Margai as PMDC Presidential Candidate and Tony Bob Hindolo Songa as his Running Mate have just been temporarily (provisionally) nominated as the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) closed down its final day (May 9th 2023) of receiving Nominations for President of Sierra Leone.

With Hon. C.F. Margai now being the final of 13 Presidential Candidates who have been temporarily cleared to contest the June 24th 2023 Elections, the Chief Electoral Commissioner Mohamed Kenewui Konneh will tomorrow publish the Names, Addresses and Occupations of each of the 13 Presidential Candidates (and his/her Running Mate) alongside the name of the Political Party which nominated him/her and the names, addresses and occupations of each of the three (3) Party Executives who nominated that Presidential Candidate.

Mr. Konneh of ECSL will do the above publication in the Government Gazette as a “Government Notice” tomorrow May 10th; hopefully in the morning hours.

Immediately that Government Notice is published tomorrow May 10th, the Law says that any Citizen of Sierra Leone is now free to go to the Supreme Court and object against any Presidential Candidate (and by extension his/her Running Mate). However that Right to Object is only allowed for a period of 7 days from tomorrow’s publication.

So any citizen can object within 7 days of tomorrow.

After any such Objection is done, there is another time frame. That is the time for the Supreme Court to act.

Within 30 days of any such Objection being filed at the Supreme Court Registry, the Chief Justice should assign three(3) Judges of the Supreme Court to hear the Objection and give a Ruling for or against the Presidential Candidate. No more than 30 days between filing the objection and the decision from the 3 Judges.

On the other hand, if in seven (7) days from tomorrow May 10th 2023, no citizen files an Objection against any Presidential Candidate then, according to the ECSL TimeTable, on May 17th 2023, the Electoral Commission will publish the names of all those particular Presidential Candidates without objections against them, as being Finally (permanent) Nominated to contest on June 24th 2023 for the position of President of Sierra Leone.

Sadly, any Presidential Candidate who gets to be objected against at the Supreme Court will have his nomination to be put on hold until the Supreme Court takes a decision. The Law says the 3 Judges should take a decision “within 30 days” of the date the Objection was lodged. So any such unlucky Presidential Candidate who is objected against, may have to wait for up to 30 days (or less) to know his/her Fate.

Meanwhile, a Maestro in Sierra Leone polity, Honourable Charles Francis Kondo Margai, is once again straddling the halls of Kingmakers. Interestingly, Margai will not be the only Kingmaker in the Halls this time. There may be a powerful Sierra Leone Woman this time emerging amongst the Kingmakers and helping to crown whosoever will emerge as the next President of Sierra Leone.

The dice has been cast.