Five opposition parties form alliance

Five opposition parties have formed an alliance to contest the 2001 presidential election in Sierra Leone, AFP reported, quoting a spokesman for the group. The coalition will be challenging the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party, led by President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who throughout his interrupted term of office has been fighting to quell a rebellion by the Revolutionary United Front. The spokesman for the alliance, who asked not to be named, said the parties had signed a deal “to facilitate the merger but have not yet decided” on the name of the body nor its leader. He said the parties aimed to achieve peace and ensure that democracy is consolidated in the country. The parties are the All People’s Congress, the United National People’s Party, the People’s Democratic Party, the Democratic Centre Party and the People’s Democratic Alliance. An editor of the influential Freetown newspaper ‘For Di People’ told IRIN on Wednesday this was the parties’ third attempt to form a coalition. “The problem has always been over who would be leader,” the editor said.