Outgoing Ambassador of the United States to Sierra Leone, David Dale Reimer, has called on opposition parties, especially the All Peopleโs Congress (APC), to dialogue with the government of President Julius Maada Bio, when he answered to questions about the US position on the recently concluded elections in Sierra Leone on Radio Democracy 98.1.
โWe’ve also called on dialogue between all parties, really, to see how Sierra Leoneans can move forward from this towards the next election in 2028. As well, you’ve seen we have called on the APC not to boycott participation in the government.
โI put out a tweet on that and that was probably the most controversial thing that I’ve done since I have been here. It got the most reactions – positive and negative, but we feel that in order for there to be a democracy, you have to have two parties. Both parties have to participate, particularly, we have to think about the people who voted for the APC. Their voices need to be heard and so that’s why we have pushed the APC as well to participate in the government.
He noted that although the United States government was yet to officially congratulate the new government, Ambassador Reimer emphasised that: โPresident Bio is the President of Sierra Leone. So, it is not that we are saying he’s not the President. What have we not done is congratulated himโ.
In his response to the question on the relationship between the US and Sierra Leone, Ambassador Reimer said moving forward, they were going to review all of their programs, especially government-to-government programs.
โWhat’s not going to change is the work that we’re doing with the people of Sierra Leone. Really our focus here is on the people of Sierra Leone, so the health programs that I mentioned before, we’re going to continue with all of them. We may even expand some of our health programming. We’re going to really focus on, you know, helping people and helping their lives improve. We will continue to be there no matter what for the people of Sierra Leone,โ he said.
Yesterday the board and executive secretary of the Independent Commission for Peace and National Cohesion (ICPNC-SL) visited the headquarters of the opposition APC in Freetown to initiate discussions on possible ways to get them to work with the government after the elections.
Executive Secretary of the Commission, Madam Hawa Samai, said one of the successes of their visit was the audience they had from the leadership of the party, following several individual engagements. She said they were hopeful, adding that they were working together to inform the public on the details of the outcome of the meeting.
quote from the Sec Gen of APC.
Chief Minister, Dr David Moinina Sengeh, expressed hope in a tweet following the ICPNC-SL meeting with the APC on Tuesday 15 August 2023.
โI’m happy to see that our colleagues in the APC party had a fruitful discussion with the Independent Commission for Peace and National Cohesion. I’m even more heartened that they’re open to engaging the gov’t in dialogue via our own national institutions. We’ve got one Salone,โ he stated.
