At the SLPP National Delegates’ Conference held in Bo City on 29th and 30th December, 2021 party delegates overwhelmingly endorsed President Dr. Julius Maada Bio as their Presidential candidate in continuity in June 2023.

Yesterday, after days of media speculations about the exact date for the conduct of the 2023 Presidential election, the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone announced that “The 24th day of June, 2023, is hereby proclaimed as the time for the election to the Office of the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone”.

So far, the SLPP has been the first and only political party in the country to have announced the name of their Presidential candidate for the 24th June, 2023 Presidential election. The main opposition APC party is locked in coalition negotiations with other smaller parties including the NGC with the aim of putting up a single Presidential candidate to challenge the SLPP Presidential candidate in June 2023.

Coalition talks are said to be falling apart after the APC refused to back suggestions that the coalition should be headed by the NGC 2018 Presidential candidate, Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella.

It has been confirmed that Dr. Kandeh Yumkella has refused the offer of being the running mate to the APC Presidential aspirant in continuity, Dr. Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara.

Senior ruling party officials believe that with Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh as running mate in continuity in 2023, President Dr. Julius Maada Bio’s victory in the first ballot is cast-iron assured.

Dr. Juldeh Jalloh did post-graduate studies in France and has a wide-ranging network of influential politicians in Africa, France, the European Union, the African Union and of course, in the United Nations. He is a well-educated politician with a sound academic track record. Dr. Juldeh Jalloh is a former top UN diplomat and civil society administrator.

President Dr. Julius Maada Bio is expected to win re-election in 2023 without a run-off based on his New Direction policy of human capital development including the introduction of the free quality education program since coming to power in April 2018.