Sierra Leone’s opposition People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC), whose alliance with the All People’s Congress (APC) helped propel it (APC) to victory in last year’s general elections, has ended its link with the ruling party ahead of the country’s council polls.
“My party is an autonomous entity and all that is possible will be done to contest the Local Council elections independently,” National Secretary General of the PMDC, Ansu Lansana, said here, indicating the alliance ended with the presidential and parliamentary elections.
“At the moment, modalities are in progress to identify qualified and dedicated loyalists of the party, who are interested to contest the July scheduled local election,” he added.
The PMDC, under the leadership of Charles Francis Margai, formed an alliance with the APC in order to defeat the former ruling Sierra Leone’s Peoples Party (SLPP), after the first round of polls.
Even though APC’s presidential candidate Ernest Bai Koroma was in the lead, the alliance formed on the eve of the run-off created an enormous advantage resulting in Koroma winning with a landslide victory.
In his reaction, APC Secretary General Victor Bockarie Foh said the PMDC had a right to go it alone, if it so wished, as the arrangement that brought the two together in the presidential run-off election was ‘temporary’.
“The arrangement that brought us together was for the mutual benefit of the parties concerned. We were all fighting to bring about a change in the politics of Sierra Leone. We have succeeded in doing that,” he said.
