The Holland-based Sierra Leone Humanitarian Organisation last week organised a debate among Sierra Leoneans polarised along the three front runners (SLPP, APC and PMDC) in their country's election billed for August 11.

The debate, the video of which is available on youtube.com, was moderated by a top executive member of the organisation, Mohamed Ali Bah. Before the debate kicked off, the moderator urged his fellow Sierra Leoneans who had gathered in Rotterdam for the debate to conduct themselves peacefully and make sure they respect the rule of the game, which included respect for one and others' views and the prevention of the use of abusive language.

Responding to a question from the moderator about what the representatives of the three leading parties in the election think sets them apart from each other, Simon Sesay of the All Peoples' Congress (APC) said that in the first place his party is an all-inclusive party, be you temne, mende, koranko etc. Another difference, he said, is the power-sharing quality of the APC when in government citing the largely balanced cabinets of regimes under APC rule as example.  Simon Sesay also added that the type of development that took place under APC rule was decentralised reaching all parts of the country.

The Sierra Leone Peoples' Party (SLPP) representative Ibrahim Kamara was equally confident about the inclusive nature of the ruling party in all but name. He said that going by the name of the party it is clear that it stands for Sierra Leone and for all Sierra Leoneans.

Teddy Foday-Musa of the People's Movement for Democratic Change said his party stands out of the pack of the two others as a party that stands for change and that the platform of its campaign is to change the hopeless situation of the suffering of majority of the people particularly the youths. He said the youths have lost their future and that it can only be restored by a total change of the system which only his party can do.