Sierra Leone leader Ernest Bai Koroma has appointed and sworn in a new vice president, the presidency said Thursday, a day after the sacked deputy vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court.
In a ceremony shown on state television, President Ernest Bai Koroma swore in Victor Foh, who was until recently the West African nation’s ambassador to China. Foh, 68, was once a senior official in the Finance Ministry and is also a former secretary-general of the ruling party, the All People’s Congress.
Koroma removed Samuel Sam-Sumana from the vice president’s post on Wednesday, citing his recent expulsion from the All People’s Congress. Sam-Sumana said in a statement that his removal was unconstitutional and that he will challenge it in the Supreme Court. He signed the statement as the “elected vice president of Sierra Leone.”
A group of good governance organizations in Sierra Leone said Thursday that they also thought the removal was unconstitutional and warned it could easily create instability, noting that the country has only recently emerged from years of civil war. They urged the president to reverse the decision “to ease the rising tension.”
The power struggle comes as the country is battling to stamp out an Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 3,600 people in Sierra Leone and two years ahead of elections at which Koroma is due to step aside.
The row has stirred confusion as Sierra Leone’s 1991 constitution only allows the dismissal of the vice president with the vote of two-thirds of parliament.
The constitution also says a vice presidential candidate must be a member of a registered political party in the run-up to an election but it is not clear whether a vice president must still be a member once in office.
