By Nasratu Kargbo
The much-talked-about safe seats for women has finally been expunged from the Public Elections Act 2022 following the week-long debate on the bill. The decision was made on the 27th of July 2022 after long hours of closed-door consultation with the Leadership of parliament and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohamed Lamin Tarawalley and other stakeholders.
The Speaker of Parliament Dr. Chernor Abass Bundu upon their return from the meeting announced a series of settlements made on contentious areas of the bill, amongst which was the removal of Clause 55 (c) which deals with safe seats for women.
“Clause 55 (c) that dealt with reserved seats, that too has been removed,” said Bundu. He explained that the clause has been deleted, but they have decided to retain Clause 59(2) which according to him deals with empowering women.
Clause 59(2) states that: “For every 3 candidates nominated under subsection (1), one of them shall be a female”.
Explaining the reason for the removal of reserved seats, the Speaker stated: “We came to the conclusion that the indication of a reserved seat in the bill offended the provisions contained in sections 74 of the constitution, and we decided instead to do away with that terminology of a reserved seat and focus attention instead on clause 59(2)”.
He added that the provision made in 59(2) is consistent with section 27 (4) (g) of the 1991 constitution, saying that they believe that it is reasonably justifiable that a democratic society provides for the empowerment of women by attempting to increase their number in the legislature.
Among settlements reached was that of the removal of the National Identity Number (NIN) for voters register, under Clause 57 which speaks on the form of the general election. It was then replaced with another clause.
When asked that he had earlier made a call on women to stand firm for their rights, Leader of Government Business from Constituency 019 Mathew Sahr Nyuma said he wanted to ensure that women are empowered, but that he was mindful of certain provisions in the constitution.
He explained that they do not want to contravene the law, and as a result, they looked at the provisions and because 55(c) contravenes the constitution, they decided to stick with 59(2).
Nyuma explained that Kenema being SLPP stronghold has eleven seats and that for every three parliamentary candidates, one should be a woman, when the list of candidates would have been completed. He noted that when the same is done in the APC stronghold of Bombali there will be more women at the end of the day.
The Leader of the Coalition for Change (C4C) party Emerson Lamina from constituency 030 in Kono explained that 55(c) was removed because it breaches sections 27 and 76 of the constitution.
Lamina emphasized that if political parties strictly go by the law and give winnable seats to women they will constitute one-third of the country’s parliament.
He expressed hope that in the next parliament more women will come on board. Lamina noted that when women are in decision-making positions, corruption is minimized and good decisions are made.
After several weeks of heated debate, members of parliament came to a consensus and on the 27th of July 2022 amended and passed into law the bill entitled the Public Elections Act of 2022.
