By Saio Marrah
A judgment delivered by a panel of five judges of the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone led by the Chief Justice, Desmond Babatunde Edwards has confirmed that the 2023 general elections be held by applying the Proportional Representation(PR) system of voting.
Justice Edwards stated “all the conditions precedent for the holding of or conducting of general elections of ordinary members of parliament through a District Block Representation system were met and/or fulfilled.”
This is because according to the judgement, the directive given by President Julius Maada Bio for the conduct of the June 24th 2023 general elections using PR system instead of constituency voting was “in tandem” with section 38A(1) of the 1991 constitution as amended.
Therefore, the current parliament when dissolved, all constituencies existing will be extinguished for the purpose of representation in parliament in favour of representatives representing each of the 16 districts.
The judgment said the revision of constituencies will also lead to alteration of the number and or establishment of constituencies subject to parliamentary approval.
Local council elections will also be by District Block System.
The judgement is as a result of the case filed by a Member of Parliament representing constituency 077 in Portloko District, Abdul Kargbo, and a councilor Hakiratu Maxwell-Caulker in Western Area, as first and second plaintiffs respectively.
According to them, the directive by President Bio for the Electoral Commission to conduct the June 2023 election for parliamentary and local council in the form of PR was unlawful.
The first plaintiff’s claim was that the conditions stipulated in section 38 A of the 1991 constitution have not been met.
Presenting the case on behalf of the plaintiffs, Counsel Dr. Abdulai O. Conteh, said the conditions for the PR to be held in public elections have not been met because according to him there should not be existence of constituencies.
He argued that presently constituencies do exist as the first plaintiff is a member of parliament representing a constituency and that the whole country is still being divided into various constituencies wherein all the constituencies have representatives in parliament.
The Solicitor General, Robert Kowa, representing the state, however argued by saying the plaintiffs did not read the said section 38A of the constitution in full.
He said once a census has been conducted and there’s a shift in population quota, it is an onus on ECSL to do boundary delimitation for the next general elections as it has always been the case.
He argued that in this scenario, the boundary delimitation was practically impossible with the time frame stipulated by electoral laws and that of ECOWAS protocol, which said laws relating to elections should not be done six months prior.
Thus, from the time of the announcement for the 2023 general elections date by the president, ECSL was unable to conduct the said boundary delimitation within the time frame, Kowa stated.
He said it is the reason for advising the President to go in for the second option, the PR system.
Copyright © 2023 Politico Online (30/01/23)
