Looking at the current political dispensation in the country ahead of the forthcoming general elections slated for 24th June 2023, political parties are forming alliance while politicians crossed carpet from either the opposition to the ruling party and vice versa.

The recent alliance that has been formed is between the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella alliance to see the re-election of incumbent President Bio. For some political reasons, Dr. Yumkella had earlier on denounced his membership with his party, the National Grand Coalition (NGC) party. His oral resignation from the NGC was meted with heavy criticism as Sierra Leoneans heavily condemned his action to re-join the SLPP that once left him in the lurch.

Political scientists have said that the alliance formed is unprecedented in the history of African politics for a ruling party to form an alliance with an opposition party. According to their perspective, alliances are formed to unseat the ruling party if they do not live up to the people’s expectations.

Forming political alliance is a common norm in this part of Africa where opposition political parties form alliance to remove the ruling party in governance. Due to unfulfilled promises and failed fiscal policies, most of these alliances have succeeded in removing the incumbent regime.  For a singular political party to get a landslide victory without forming allies is inevitable in this current political landscape. Because it is a strong political belief that all political parties have their strongholds that no matter what may, no other political party will conquer their stronghold areas.  Some opposition politicians cannot hold on to the forth when power is not on their side coupled with the surmounting pressures from the party in governance.

It could be recalled that on Wednesday 12th April, 2023, president Bio and Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella held a fruitful discussion at State House where the duos met on an agreement to form a strong coalition force against  the strong main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party and just after their meeting  at State House, the then Leader of the NGC party tweeted on his twitter page that “we have finally reached a crucial turning point in our country’s political history, where we prioritized peace and set aside personal ambitions for a better Sierra Leone.”

Political commentators have described Dr. Yumkella as a man who licks his own spittle. They said Dr. Yumkella who had earlier on described both the ruling SLPP and APC as good for nothing and do not mean well for the citizens and country and is now forming an alliance with president Bio to see the people continue to suffer in abject poverty, intermittent energy distribution, bloated taxes, mass killings of innocent citizens and a remote control judiciary system.

Another school of thought has opined that next month Presidential election will be based on human rights records and according to their surveys the people fear president Bio’s second term due to the massive inhumane treatment meted to the people during his first term reign. Despite expunging the death penalty as enshrined in the 1991 Constitution, international human rights observers have stated that the killing of innocent inmates at the Freetown Male Correctional Centre during the April 29, 2021 Pademba road riot by state security personnel is a gross human rights violation that has stained Bio’s chance for his second term of office.