By Alhaji Komba
Fresh from a successful party convention in the southern headquarter town of Bo, the newly-elected flag bearer of the United Democratic Movement (UDM) Mohamed Bangura has told Politico that “the first challenge” facing his movement is to establish “a third party” and so provide a clear alternative to the people of Sierra Leone. He said the “UDM is not here to win in 2012” but that they would “concentrate on winning many parliamentary and local council seats across the country”.
Bangura said "there is abundant appetite in the country for a third force to serve as a counterweight to the dominant parties – the APC and the SLPP…The PMDC could have consolidated the gains they made in 2007 but clearly, they failed to do that”.
He would not be drawn into saying which party the UDM would support in the event of a run-off, arguing instead that the UDM will have a talks with those parties that are prepared to go in line with UDM’s policies. He said one on those policies would be the absolute need to “standardise our labour laws...because they are out-dated…We will not consider ministerial jobs and ambassadorial appointments.”
Asked about the widely-held view that the UDM is a creation of the APC, Bangura denied any affiliation with the ruling party. He said his party works closely with other political parties like the NDA, the RUFP and the APC who have always responded to our calls and “opened their door to us...we are not affiliated to the APC.”
He went on that “The SLPP and the PMDC are still in denial about the strength of the UDM ...They even turned down our invitation to attend [our] recent national delegates’ conference”.
The party leader described recent defections from his party as “a case of stage-managed returnees.” Bangura accused the SLPP of sponsoring one Peter Massaquoi to challenge him for the party leadership. “They also planted other people in the party...when they lost at the convention, they returned to their party – the SLPP.”
Mohamed Bangura is the youngest presidential candidate in independent Sierra Leone. He is 39 years old and turns 40 years in July this year.
