The current flagbearership issue in the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) is brewing disunity among a cross section of SLPP members, and has reached a boiling point as some members of the party’s Kono branch will soon join the bandwagon of Stephen Sahr Mambu for the party to call for a fresh flagbearership election and strip the 2023 position from the current president and leader of SLPP, Dr Julius Maada Bio.
This group of SLPP supporters recently met in Kono District where they discussed many issues presently affecting the party including the current campaign of Stephen Sahr Mambu and also his plan to take the party to court if they refuse to comply with
his call. The meeting took place at the party’s Kono District office last week.
After this meeting one of the participants who is also a member of SLPP in the district, Abdul Karim Cole, said that when the issue of President Bio’s 2023. flag bearership was put to the body, many SLPP members threw their support behind the cause of Mr Mambu’s on the basis that the party’s hierarchy did not follow the exact provisions in the new SLPP 2021 Constitution for the election of the flagbearer.
He noted that most of the SLPP supporters in Kono District believe that the awarding of the position to the president was unfair despite the fact that he is still the incumbent.
According to Abdul Karim, the party did not advertise for any expression of interest for the position before going to the said convention, adding that neither were the names of delegates published before the event. He noted that most of these failures are against the provisions of the SLPP Constitution, which is why most of them are preparing to join the call for a fresh flagbearership election.
Meanwhile, the man who started the reported illegal election campaign, Stephen Sahr Mambu, is still continuing his call for the party to do the needful by calling for fresh elections. However, the National Executive is yet to make any response in relations to this issue