March 13, 2018 By Ibrahim Tarawallie
Campaign Spokesperson for the National Grand Coalition (NGC) yesterday stated that the party was not thinking along the line of pitching tent with either the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) or the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) should there be a run-off.
With 75% of the presidential result announced so far by the National Electoral Commission (NEC), SLPP presidential candidate Rtd. Brigadier Julius Maada Bio is slightly ahead with 43.33% as against 42.6% for Dr. Samura Matthew Wilson Kamara of the APC.
With the final 25% of the presidential result expected to be announced soon by NEC, it is now clear that a run-off between the SLPP and APC is imminent as none of their standard bearers will be able to carve out the 55% needed to win on first ballot.
The two oldest political parties should be thinking about discussing the possibility of a merger with the National Grand Coalition, who are a distance third with 136, 009 votes representing 6.95% and the Coalition for Change (C4C) with 3.43%.
But Dr. Julius Spencer said: “We have not yet started thinking along the line of pitching tent with any party. We have not paid any attention to it.”
He assured that when the time is right the party would have internal discussions to decide what to do.
Dr. Spencer reiterated that the NGC does not believe that the votes cast last Wednesday (March 7) reflect the will of the people because of massive irregularities, adding that they have asked NEC to recount in some districts.
With regards their message of change during the month-long campaign, the NGC Spokesman said: “We cannot draw conclusions yet as to whether the change message resonated well with the people. Our performance is below expectation. I know we have won some parliamentary and council seats but I don’t have the exact details yet.”