By Alpha Abu
At a jam-packed Bintumani Conference hall in Freetown on Wednesday, President Julius Maada Bio has appealed to party supporters to close ranks, ahead of the June elections.
Addressing a two-day Delegates Conference of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) aimed at reviewing his manifesto achievements and drawing up a new one that he is to take to the voters, he said differences that emanated after their district and regional elections must be buried for good.
He said they must come from the conference as a united party and never allow internal wrangling to overshadow their main focus of going into the elections as a formidable force. ‘’We have the numbers everywhere, and victory is ours’’, he asserted.
Mentioning the underlying motive of the conference, Bio said he would want to seek ideas from the ordinary party supporters about what they want him to do for the populace should he be re-elected to serve another 5 year term as President of Sierra Leone.
He used the event to reassert his support for District Block System of voting, contested by the opposition, that the electorate will have to go through in the polls, saying the system will put aside the issue of bye- election which he said is violent –prone, and that smaller parties could now have the luxury of being represented in Parliament instead of the winner takes it all scenario.
The president took delegates through a summarised presentation of his government’s key achievements so far, citing health, infrastructure, agriculture, judiciary and human capital development as testaments.
He said the country has also gained recognition from reputable international institutions such as the UN, its subsidiaries UNICEF and UNESCO, for the government’s flagship Free Quality Education Programme.
He also mentioned the death penalty, and seditious libel law that were abolished, and the enactment of laws that give women access to land, and gender equality as some of the key reforms in the judiciary that his administration spearheaded.
He thanked his party’s representatives in Parliament for what he said was their bravery in helping to pass through the laws that have significantly improved the country’s human rights record at global level.
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