Electoral/Political Party Reform – 2001

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Electoral/Political Party Reform – 2001

2001

Intermediate Implementation Intermediate implementation

Twenty-one political parties met on August 9, 2001 to map out the type of electoral system for the forthcoming elections. The various parties met with the National Election Commissioner, who earlier wrote to the Attorney General, Mr Solomon Berewa, notifying him that the various parties had denounced the current proportional representation system in Parliament.1

The letter read as follows:

“The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has apparently discarded the Proportional Representation (PR) and constituency- based systems of elections. In a letter dated 20 July written by the NEC Chairman, Mr.Walter Nicol to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Solomon Berewa, it was stated that the PR system used in the 1996 elections be discarded. Nicol noted that the overwhelming majority of people were dissatisfied with the National List Proportional Representation (NLPR) system used for the 1996 parliamentary elections and would prefer constituency-based elections. “However, extant conditions are not favourable for realistically dividing present-day Sierra Leone into equitable single member constituencies,” the seven- page letter stated. The letter went on, “it would be absolutely necessary to get as close as practicable to constituency-based elections, preferably without having to actually draw constituency boundaries. For this purpose, it may be possible to regard the existing 14 electoral district as big constituencies, each of which would then elect a number of MPs en-block. This system could be called the District Block Representation (DBR) system. NEC says that in this system, a district would not be further sub-divided into constituencies. “All parties contesting the elections in the district would compete for the block of seats allocated to the particular district by parliament. The contesting parties would be allocated seats from the district’s number of MPs on the basis of their proportional share of the total district vote.” NEC is recommending six parliamentary seats for each district in the Northern, Eastern, and Southern Provinces, and seven seats for each of the two electoral districts in the Western Area. The increased number of seats in the Western Area is, “to make up for the fact that these two districts would not elect Paramount Chief Members of Parliament under the proposed system. “In all, there would be a total of 98 MPs, consisting of 86 ordinary Members and 12 Paramount Chiefs Members. The regional distribution of the 86 seats would be: Northern – 30; Eastern – 18; Western – 14, and Southern 24.” Political parties, including the ruling SLPP, have disapproved of the NEC’s proposal. “We don’t understand what NEC is up to, their business is to conduct elections not recommend what the people do not want,” the interim NUP leader, John Benjamin, remarked.”2

The All Political Parties Association (APPA), a body representing some registered political parties in Sierra Leone, expressed its dissatisfaction with the National Electoral Commission (NEC) and said it must be dissolved before elections take place in 2002.3

Parliamentary and Presidential elections were scheduled for May 2002. However, on October 4, 2001, Sierra Leone’s National Electoral Commission announced the suspension of the registration of voters for the forthcoming parliamentary and presidential elections. “The commission’s acting chairman, Alhaji Musa King, told journalists that the suspension was due to the low speed of taking arms away from different groups in many parts of the country.” 4

Parliament passed the Constitution of Sierra Leone (Amendment) Act, 2001 (No. 15, 2001) on issues related to electoral law.5

  1. “Sierra Leone: Political parties meet to “map” electoral system for next election,” BBC Monitoring Africa, August 9, 2001.
  2. “Sierra Leone; National Electoral Commission Discards PR, Constituency-Based Election,” Africa News, August 11, 2001.
  3. “Sierra Leone; Political Parties Want Electoral Commission Dissolved,” Africa News, September 21, 2001.
  4. “Sierra Leone: National Electoral Commission suspends voter registration,” BBC Monitoring Africa, October 5, 2001.
  5. “Laws of Sierra Leone.”