SIERRA LEONE: Opposition leader Charles Margai returns home to hero's welcome after an international campaign to raise support ahead of 2007 elections

Record ID: 453921

  • Title: SIERRA LEONE: Opposition leader Charles Margai returns home to hero's welcome after an international campaign to raise support ahead of 2007 elections
  • Date: 16th December 2006
  • Summary: (AD1) FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE (FILE - 2002) (REUTERS) VARIOUS THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE IN STADIUM CHEERING SIERRA LEONE PRESIDENT AHMAD TEJAN KABBAH KABBAH'S CAR MOVING INSIDE STADIUM, KABBAH WAVING TO THE CROWD CROWD CHEERING, ANNOUNCER'S VOICE HEARD POSTER OF KABBAH KABBAH ADDRESSING THE CROWD RIOT, PEOPLE THROWING STONES U.N. TANK MOVING AT SPEED, SOLDIER WITH GUN SEEN
  • Embargoed: 31st December 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Sierra Leone
  • Country: Sierra Leone
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA90SFLRC9GW9M9HRXD5TG9NLQH
  • Story Text: With 2007 elections on the horison, Sierra Leonian opposition party leader Charles Margai received a hero's welcome as he returned to the country on Thursday (December 14) after a two-week tour of America and Europe to lobby international monitoring groups to ensure that Sierra Leones elections in July 2007 are free and fair.
    Cheered on by crowds of supporters decked out in the party's orange colours, Margai explained why he had turned to Sierra Leone's large overseas community for assistance.
    "Well, I went to sensitize Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora about the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary elections, and I was left in no doubt that our brothers and sisters are very commited in effecting change in this country, positive change under the leadership of PMDC," Margai explained after arriving in the capital Freetown by ferry.
    The jubilation on his arrival left no doubt that the 2007 election will be a hotly contested affair and appears to auger well for the country's fledgeling democracy..
    Lawyer Charles Margai broke away from Sierra Leone's ruling party last year and around a quarter of a million people have since registered with the PMDC, which will take on the Sierra Leone Peoples' Party (SLPP) headed by incumbent president, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.
    Sierra Leone is still recovering after nearly 14 years of brutal civil war, which ended in 2002 and saw up to around 500,000 people, or a tenth of the population murdered, maimed or raped.
    Many in the country still live in dire poverty. Sierra Leone is the world's second-poorest country, and unhappiness with the current government has grown in the past few years.
    In a country where more children die before they reach the age of five than anywhere else, many people say they want change.
    Much of the capital, Freetown, has been without electricity for two years, and without a proper water supply for even longer.
    The SLPP is still widely expected to win a majority in the June 2007 election but by law, Kabbah has to step down and his deputy, Vice-President Solomon Berewa, is likely to be party's candidate.
    Parties like the PMDC are promising development-oriented policies, explained PMDC official, Olufemi Boyle Hebrom.
    "I think the people are poised for change. The SLPP incumbent government have demonstrated that they lack the capacity. Neither are they sincere in carrying out the wills and aims and objectives of the Sierra Leonean people, so I think the watch-word for Sierra Leone is "positive change", and the people are poised for change, and definately PMDC would become really much victorious, come 2007, " Hebrom said.
    David Keikula Sama also supports Margai's visit abroad. "When we started, if I could say it was like under a razor blade. It was very difficult to cope up but we believe that the people in the diaspora called on him and his visit was to solicit funding for the people of Sierra Leone to ensure the victory of the PMDC come 2007. So when he returns the way we started has to be quite different from how we are going now, because now we have to be logistically strong to ensure we undo the government of the day," Sama said.
    Margai was arrested at the beginning of December this year after holding a meeting that had not been authorised by the government. His arrest sparked riots in Bo and in Freetown. Gangs of youths took to the streets and police fired tear gas to prevent angry mobs from storming government buildings.
    Though the PMDC has a reliable following in Freetown, many are sceptical about whether it can defeat a ruling party with state resources at its disposal.
    Kabbah won a landslide victory in May 2002 in mostly peaceful polls, but his popularity has waned.
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