By Nasratu Kargbo
On the final day of the debate on President Bio’s recent speech to open this session of parliament, opposition MPs attacked the Proportional Representation system because, according to them, it makes political parties more powerful than the people. They argued that the PR system “does not give the citizens the opportunity to choose their parliamentary representatives directly”.
The parliamentary leader of the main opposition APC said he would continue to oppose the PR system because it is “very dangerous because MPs do not feel obligated to their constituents, all they do is to have dealings with their party because the party has the power”. Chernor Maju Bah said contrary to the current constitutional guarantees for independent candidates, the PR system does not make provision for that.
He argued that because the country was one year away from elections the electoral laws should not be amended and hoped that President Bio was not about to amend the electoral laws going by some areas of his speech.
The APC parliamentary leader said the president promised during his campaign for office that he will ensure that a year before elections, the laws governing the conduct of those elections would not be amended citing “rumors on the streets that the government wants to introduce the district block system”. He called for nationwide consultations on such important matters.
Francis Saa Bendu C4C MP from Kono district backed the statement of the APC leader arguing that the constituency system gives the opportunity to the public to choose their representatives and “creates opportunities for the people to dialogue and interface with their representatives”.
The Speaker of Parliament Dr. Abass Bundu said any attempt to amend the constitution would trigger a vote.
Meanwhile, in a communiqué issued at the end of a recent retreat in Bo, other opposition parties under the umbrella of the All Political Parties Association (APPA) called for the “use of Proportional Representation in the 2023 elections, instead of the First Past the Post (FPTP) system, on the basis that, the PR system is more representative, saves cost and puts an end to security threats and tensions that characterize bye-elections, reduces campaign burden on individual candidates and it is more unifying”.
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