r. Ernest Bai Koroma, the son of an itinerant Weslyan preacher and a devout christian mother who always encouraged the saying of the grace at family meals, has done it again. He has won Sierra Leone’s fourth post-war Presidential elections by clearly beating his challenger , a former military junta leader, Maada Bio, who campaigned on the platform of a New Direction which we can now safely say that voters rejected for the Agenda For Change that Koroma has used over the five years of his first term to transform Sierra Leone.

Koroma beat Bio, collecting 1, 314,881 votes , representing 58% of the total votes that were enough to earn him a second term. SLPP Presidential candidate , Mr. Maada Bio, polled only 837, 517 representing 37% of the total valid votes.
And the whole nation which had been waiting anxiously for the results has burst into raptures of joy. Taxi and okada drivers are abandoning their vehicles and kneeling on the ground and kissing it and thanking God for bringing back President Koroma , the man credited for bringing back electricity and water supply after decades of darkness and constructing magnificent infrastructure that have change the face of the nation. Thousands upon thousands of jubilant Sierra Leoneans are dancing on the streets like it is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

The whole nation has gone red, the colour of President Koroma’s All People’s Congress ( APC ) party , which has also scored a large majority in parliamentary and local council seats. Red-shirted supporters are dancing everywhere in the nation and it will not be a surprise if the next few days become unofficial holidays as Sierra Leoneans celebrate the return of the Ernest Koroma Government , which has made Sierra Leone the envy of other West African nations with its socio-economic and political developments that saw the revival of farming , the resumption of mining activities , the acceleration of business and commerce , the construction of modern highways throughout the length and breadth of the country and the prediction of the IMF and the World Bank that Sierra Leone now has the second fastest growing economy in the world. The outpouring of emotions has been unimaginable. Taxi , bus and private drivers are hooting their horns in celebration .

Koroma’s win is a victory for progressive Sierra Leoneans who decided not to vote along tribal and regional lines to give the country continuity in President Koroma’s development aspirations and achievements.

The run up to today’s announcement of the results of this watershed election was punctuated by a tense waiting period, the likes of which has never been seen before in the nation, probably rivalled by the anxiety that followed the 1967 General Elections that pitched the then sitting Prime Minister , Sir Albert Margai of the SLPP and then trade unionist Mr. Siaka Stevens of the APC. Like 1967 when the then Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service ( SLBS) played music all the way for a week , interrupted only by public service announcements, radio stations treated anxious listeners to music whole day as citizens remained on edge awaiting the announcement of the result. for days. Meanwhile the nation waited, opposing party fanatics, especially the SLPP, spread rumours around the country, in discussion forums and the social media, especially Facebook. Unlike 1967 when chaos set in with the army stepping in on the instruction of the then SLPP Government and putting the victor, Mr. Stevens and newly-appointed ministers under house arrest, sparking a coup and a counter-coup within days that plunged the country into a military interregum for a year, today’s announcement only ignited widespread jubilation, but the opposition SLPP and People’s Movement For Democratic Change presidential candidates Maada Bio and Charles Margai respectively have said before the announcement they are not accepting the results.

The announcement of the result of what was described as watershed elections came as a welcome relief to millions of Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad who have been transfixed and kept at the edge of their seats for a week since elections day last Saturday.