11/07/2022
THE FLAWS OF THE BILLS RELATING TO THE CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS AND REGULATIONS OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN SIERRA LEONE 2022
BY Marcus Bangura
CITIZENSHIP AND DEMOCRACY EDUCATION
Monday, 11th July, 2022
As the Supreme Legislative authority for Sierra Leone, Parliament make laws for the peace, security, order and government of Sierra Leone as enshrined in Section 73 (3) of the Constitution of Sierra Leone,1991, Act No 6, 1991. Apart from Law making law making, Section 108 of the Constitution also empower Parliament to alter the Constitution, subject to Sub Section 2, which makes it very clear that in altering the Bill for an Act of Parliament, it should supported by a 2/3rd Majority on the Second and third reading and before the First Reading , the text of the Bill must have been published twice in the gazette within an interval of 9 days.
Following the Pre-Legislative Hearings and the First Readings of the Bills relating to the conducts of elections and regulation political parties vis-à-vis, the Public Elections Bill 2022 and the Political Parties Regulatory Commission Bill 2022 in Parliament, there have been aggregated public interests and heated debates among Sierra Leoneans, especially, among the educated folks and the political party supporters and at the Second Reading of the the proposed Public Elections Act last Tuesday 5th July 2022, Parliament was caught into an unparalleled mayhem which eventually embroiled and disrupted the proceedings and for which the Parliamentary sittings was adjourned to Tuesday 12th July, 2022. The commotions and disturbances propelled further debates among the educated folks and political party supporters from far and wide, especially, when the Bills are predicated on the conduct of elections and regulation of political party activities at a time when general elections is just around the corner and barely less than a year left with all eyes stuck on the ticking clock and countdown activated to June 2023.
However, it is shocking that the degree of interest, time, energy and focus rapt towards the Bills in the various debates and discussions held in many quaters by the educated elites, prints, electronics and social meda centered most of the arguments on Proportional Representation and First Past The Post electoral system without and examining the nuts and bolts or nitty-gritties affixed in the two Bills for future posterity. Simply put, more attention has been paid to the electoral voting systems, other than making in-depth perusing and diagnosis of the Bills to ascertain the veracity of the main principles therein so as to enable Mps to get rid of bad and unwanted clauses in the Bills which have the tendency to ignite political tensions and disrupt the peace and security of the country, if left unabated and compromised.
As explained above, I have perused the Bills and found that the Bills contained good and bad clauses and the bad clauses are horrendous that they are not good for nurturing democracy and good governance. The bad as a matter of fact do not speak to the aspirations of the electorates and at the same time undermines the conduct of free and fair elections in a democratic and fragile state like ours, where elections are expected to be peacefully conducted, votes counted publicly, results declared on time and accepted by all without resorting to suspicions, distrusts and violence that elections results have been machinated and manipulated with intrigues and manoeuvring.
In respect of the above, I will endeavour to bring to light some of the flaws of the Public Elections Act 2022 as follows.
To start with the debate around the electoral systems, Section 57 (Forms of general elections) of the proposed Public Elections Act 2022, intends to amend or repeal Sections 32, 33 and 38 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone as a way to replace the First Past the Post with Single Member constituencies to Proportional Representation which has a Multi-member Constituency or District Block List System. The PR system has been tested and abandoned due to its complex, expensive and chaotic nature, where MPs are elected through a district block list prepared and submitted by the party hierarchy to the Electoral Commission and where a ruthless and non-performing MP continue in parliament as far as he is willing to become political a lantern or puppet and dance to the music of the party hierarchy. The PR system also break Constituency-MP relationship, lacks accountability, limits voters choice, leads to coalitions which weakens the government, discourage bye elections, makes the electorates confused as to who they should vote for and makes government weak to pursue campaign and manifesto promises due to the dictates of the balance of power by smaller political parties with whom coalitions are made. Unlike PR, First Past the Post is simple to understand, cheaper to run and familiar with the people as well as strengthens close Constituency-MP relationship, produce strong government, prevent coalition government, hold politicians to account, widens voters’ choice and enables the electorates to know exactly who they are voting for among other. However, to replace the First Past the Post with Proportional Representation, the Bill must be supported by a threshold of Two/Thirds Majority of 98 MPs out of 146 Members of Parliament, including 132 directly elected MPs and 14 indirectly elected Paramount Chiefs. As it stands , the SLPP have 58, APC 59 , PC 14 and remaining seats shared among C4C, NGC and independent candidates. To get thethe 2/3rd, all MPs should vote for the Bill PLUS 9 MPs from the APC, which many say mission impossible. Voting is expected to be in secret ballot.
The second flaw is cancellation of votes due to violence at Polling stations as provided in Section 86 (1) and 87 of the proposed Public Election Act 2022, where the Counting Officer is empowered to cancel votes in a polling station where violence significantly disrupts during the counting of votes. The conduct of another election is determined by the Electoral Commissioner on the premise that the outcome of the votes in the affected polling Station affects the outcome of the result. However, the question is what barometer would be used to determine significant disruption. This proviso can give rise to more violence, especially when the Counting Office’s decision is final. This reminds me of Constituency 110 when the entire election result was cancelled by the then Chief Electoral Commission with impunity , despite footages showing the perpetrators of the violence. This is a bad law that will cause election results to be unacceptable.
The third Flaw is the complex nature of the proof of claim for registration in addition to the refusal to register a person, records of statements, the inclusion of the National Identification Number (NIN) and the power vested in Registration Officer. The whole process is complex, considering the time factor for registration, the spate of illiteracy rate and where a person who is refused to be registered has the burden to make a written record to the Chief Electoral Commissioner. The inclusion of the National Identification Number (NIN) in Section 24 (1) (e) and Section 25 of the Bill will give rise to tensions at the Registrstion Centres.
The fourth flaw is the removal is the excessive power given to the president to remove a member of the Electoral Commission for gross misconduct and inability to discharge the functions of his office in relation to infirmity of mind or body or any other cause as provided in Sub Section 1 of Section 5 of the Proposed Public Elections Act, 2022, pursuant to Subsection 8 of Section 32 of the Constitution. The big issue here is the removal of a member of the Commission by the president is predicated on paragraphs (a) and (b) of Subsection 5 and Sub-Sections 6 and 7 of Section 137 of the Constitution which speaks to the Tenure of Office of Judges. And since the president may remove a member of the Electoral Commission, then, it goes without saying that we would be surrendering subsequent elections to the whims and caprices of a president who may want power at all cost, especially where he got strained relationship with the Chief Electoral Commissioner and other Commissioners, taking into consideration the Lara Taylor-Pearce case and her deputy who were suspended for alleged misconduct using Section 137 (5) , (6) and (7) few days before the publication of the Annual Auditor General Report.
The Political Parties Regulatory Commission Act, 2022, was laid in the Chamber of Parliament on Wednesday, 29th June, 2022 for its First Reading. The Bill seeks to regulate the activities of political parties including the registration of political parties as provided in Sections 34 and 35 of the Constitution.
See next edition for the flaws in the proposed Political Parties Regulatory Commision Act 2022.
