By Mohamed K. Turay
As the award of the All People’s Congress (APC) symbol commences on Friday this week in the form an election the former Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, has got tremendous supports and endorsements from delegates of the East District in the Western Area.
Delegates, who spoke during Aki-Sawyerr’s declaration in all the constituencies visited, cited some of her achievements while serving as the Mayor of Freetown despite the intimidation from the Minister of Local Government and the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) government which did everything to undermine some of her projects especially those which had to go for Government’s approval.
In all the constituencies visited in the Western Area, delegates reaffirmed that with the explicit explanation given by her; they saw reasons why she decided to choose her running mate from the same region and same faith. From her explanation, delegates, particularly those from the East, said they had earlier misunderstood why the party decided to allow her to choose Kweku Lisk as her running mate and assured her and her would-be deputy Mayor of their unflinching support come this Friday and June 24 respectfully.
In her remarks, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr said her development strides were visible in all the 48 Wards in the Western Area through her councillors at Ward level. She cited youth employment, women’s empowerment through cash transfers, providing tricycles in all the Wards in the capital city which provided incomes for the youth and women.
She promised that if reelected, she would continue to rebrand Freetown as she did in her first time in office.
Aki-Sawyerr also talked about the reason why the Bio-led administration decided to introduce the PR system. She noted that the SLPP was of the notion that with the PR system, they would secure seats in the Western Area and therefore urged all delegates present not to allow the SLPP to meet the threshold set by the Electoral Commission-Sierra Leone (ECSL) because their performance in the last five years was nothing to write home about.
Other speakers from the East District and regional executive, who accompanied former Mayor Aki-Sawyerr, gave reasons why she was a subject of intimidation by the SLPP government throughout her tenure.