The former minister promises to campaign on the theme of unity, while he is the subject of a procedure for corruption.
Unsuccessful candidate in 2018, Samura Kamara is once again trying his luck in the presidential election in Sierra Leone. The former foreign minister won on Monday against 17 other contenders, with 85% of the vote after a three-day congress. Nominated presidential candidate from the opposition, he will once again face outgoing President Julius Maada Bio on June 24, his rival from five years ago.
“ no one is an enemy “. With this slogan, Samura Kamara tried to bring together the 1,500 delegates from the APC party, who had been meeting since Saturday in Makeni, a town northwest of the capital Freetown. A call for unity intended to make people forget the internal tensions that marked the congress.
At the heart of the differences: the selection process which would have been marred by irregularities, according to some delegates… Like Richard Conteh, who came in second place. The former Minister of Commerce under former President Ernest Koroma complained in particular of having been prevented from entering Congress by factions obeying Samura Kamara. He also points to the abnormally high score of Kamara who received more than 1300 votes, while he obtained 88 favorable ballots.
Other observers attribute this fine performance to the support granted to Samura Kamara by the former head of state Ernest Koroma.
The choice of the former minister to again wear the colors of the APC comes as he is suspected of having embezzled more than two million dollars in a case of renovation of the Sierra Leonean consulate in New York, when he was in Foreign Affairs. He has been on trial for two years. Thursday, his defense requested a dismissal. If this request is rejected, Kamara will be sentenced at the end of the trial, and will be declared ineligible for the presidential election.