By Thomas Dixon
FREETOWN, Mar. 30 (232news.com) – With less than a year to the 2023 Presidential Elections in Sierra Leone, the political climate is beginning to charge as there is some political calculations and conjuring that are being done by the two main political parties- ruling Sierra Leone People Party (SLPP) and the main opposition All People Congress (APC) as to where they stand and what they can or cannot do to increase their chances of winning.
In the 2018 Presidential Election, the National Grand Coalition (NGC) was the ‘third force’ and they were campaigning for a radical change from the two main political parties that have ruled Sierra Leone since independence. They referred to the two main political parties as Alusine and Alhassan.
NGC Political Leader Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella dubbed the APC as ‘Alusine’ and the SLPP as ‘Alhassan.’ Alusine and Alhassan are names given to twins born in an Islamic family. In other words, Kandeh Yumkella was saying that both the APC and the SLPP are just one and the same and as such, the APC referred to the NGC as ‘Gbassay’(a male child born after twins).
But what happened in Kambia some weeks ago and what is going on with Coalition of Progressive Political Parties (COPPP) have got many tongues wagging with regard the future of NGC and Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella.
THIRD FORCE IN SIERRA LEONE
Since the return to democracy in Sierra Leone in 1996, a political party that is referred to as “third force” has always been coming up in transitional elections but third force lacks the political oxygen to survive another election.
In 1996, the race was between SLPP and UNPP but PDP was the third force. After the first round of election in 1996, the PDP Leader Thaimu Bangura threw his support to the SLPP. Kabbah won the election with almost 60% of the vote in the run-off and compensated Thaimu Bangura with the prestigious position of Finance Minister and later make him Minister of Communication before his (Thaimu Bangura) demise. Osman Kamara who took over PDP continued the political marriage with the SLPP and by the 2002 elections, PDP died naturally.
In 2007, the Peoples Movement For Democratic Change (PMDC) headed by Charles Francis Margai became the third force. In the run-off between APC and SLPP, PMDC supported APC and Ernest Bai Koroma. Over five members of Margai’s party were given prominent ministerial positions but APC started conscripting those PMDC ministers into APC tacitly.
In 2018, the election went into a run-off between APC and SLPP but NGC, the new third force refused to official joined any of the two parties but advised their supporters to make their own choice.
Perhaps the reasons the NGC refused to either join Alusine or Alhassan was because they want to be a genuine third force that will be a force for political reckoning in Sierra Leone but recent happenings have made people to think again.
NGC’s CONUNDRUM
NGC is in some form of a conundrum with their supporters caught in the middle as to the political direction of their party. NGC has been able to keep all four of its MPs unbroken in Parliament with no defection from it Parliamentary ranks but there have been few resignations in the party.
The Chairman of NGC is seen romancing with the APC (Alusine) in a Consortium of Progressive Political Parties (COPPP) and last week, the Chairman was seen in group photo with the former President who is the chairman of the main opposition, Ernest Bai Koroma.
Two weeks ago, President Bio was seen begging the Political Leader and head of NGC in Parliament to go back to the SLPP(Alhassan) which in President Bio’s words is the party of origin of Kandeh Yumkella but Kandeh responded, “R hold word” (I will consider).
Since that meeting in Kambia, SLPP people have been saying Kandeh will return home while supporters of APC are saying that they will make Kandeh their flagbearer.
It is not always easy to withstand the tempting offers from the big players in the political landscape but Kandeh has remained consistent.
With history of third force dying after the election that made them third force, it is matter of wait and see whether the NGC will remain a genuine third force or will die like all other third forces before them.
