Julius Maada Bio
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Julius Maada Wonie Bio (born 12 May 1964) is a Sierra Leonean politician and the current president of Sierra Leone since 4 April 2018. He is a retired brigadier in the Sierra Leone Army and was the military head of the state of Sierra Leone from 16 January 1996 to 29 March 1996, in a military junta government known as the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC).
As military head of state, Bio returned Sierra Leone to a democratically elected government, when he handed power to Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of the Sierra Leone People's Party, following Kabbah's victory in the 1996 Sierra Leonean presidential election. Upon retiring from the military in 1996, Bio moved to the United States, where he was granted political asylum, and he did not visit Sierra Leone from the U.S. until 2005.
Bio was the SLPP presidential candidate in the 2012 presidential election, but he received 37% of the vote as he was defeated by the incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma who won 58% of the votes.
As the candidate of the main opposition Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), Bio defeated Samura Kamara of the ruling All People's Congress (APC) in the runoff vote of the 2018 Sierra Leonean presidential election with 51.8% of the votes to Kamara's 48.2%. International and local observers declared the election free and fair.[not verified in body] He succeeded Ernest Bai Koroma as president.
As the main opposition leader, Bio was a critic of his predecessor President Ernest Bai Koroma, and his administration. As president, Bio has overturned most of the policies of Koroma, whom he accuses of corruption and mismanagement of the country's treasury, and the two men very rarely speak to each other.[not verified in body] A couple of senior government officials under former president Koroma have been arrested by the Sierra Leone Police and indicted by the Sierra Leone Ministry of Justice under President Bio on corruption-related charges, including former Finance Minister and 2018 APC presidential candidate Samura Kamara, who lost the 2018 presidential election to Bio.[not verified in body] Bio's presidential actions included legislation for gender equality and to combat sexual violence. His government's handling of the economy was the target of a violent protest in August 2022.
Bio has a master's degree in international affairs from American University in Washington, D.C. Bio is also a Cadet graduate from Sierra Leone's Benguema Military Academy. Bio is a practicing Roman Catholic Christian, though his wife, Fatima Bio, is a practicing Muslim.[1][2]
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