Ernest Bai Koroma

Ernest Bai Koroma ( born October 2, 1953 in Makeni, Bombali District, Northern Province ) is President and Commander -in- Chief of the Republic of Sierra Leone since 17 September 2007. In November 2012, he was elected for a second term as President. He is Chairman of the All People's Congress ( APC). Before taking up his duties, he was leader of the opposition.

Koroma's father was a member of temnischen people, his mother was Limba. Ernest Bai Koroma itself is considered as Temne, as his father was Temne. He is married to Sia Koroma and has two daughters.

Training

Koroma went to the Christian Sierra Leone elementary school, the state school for boys in Magburaka and studied at the famous Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, which he left in 1976 successfully. Koroma was for a short time teacher at the secondary school St. Francis in Makeni before joining the Sierra Leone National Insurance Company in 1978. Between 1978 and 2002, Koroma was a successful businessman.

Political career

On March 24, 2002, Koroma was elected Chairman of the All People's Congress. He was presidential candidate in the 2002 elections, but reached only 22.3 percent of the vote, thus losing against Ahmed Tejan Kabbah of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party. Koroma won a seat in parliament.

After numerous internal party disagreements and power struggles Koroma was confirmed again as party chairman in September 2005. He led the APC to the parliamentary and presidential elections in August 2007. The APC was relatively surprising as the winner of the parliamentary elections. Although Koroma could not reach the required 55 percent of votes in the first ballot, but was elected president in the run-off election against his rival and Vice President Solomon Berewa on September 8. On September 17, 2007, shortly after the announcement of the official election results, Koroma was sworn in as president. Although he pointed out, inter alia, on success in reforming health care to tourism and road construction in his first term, critics spoke to him from successful serious reforms and pointed to a continued bad economy and corruption problems.

On November 17, 2012 Koroma again won the presidential election and has been confirmed for a further term of five years. He was the first president since the end of the civil war in Sierra Leone, who was re-elected. Koroma sat down with 58.7 percent of the vote against Julius Maada Bio by ( SLPF ). The election result was announced only on 23 November 2012 after the opposition had raised allegations of fraud. The Election Commission had then leave ten percent of the vote counted out again. Observers assessed the presidential election, which was held for the first time without the support of the UN, as free and fair.

Awards

• 2010 African Peace Prize ( Africa Peace Award), received on behalf of the Sierra Leonean people