By: Hassan Osman Kargbo
The Institute for Governance Reform (IGR) has in a letter dated 30th May 2024 suggested five recommendations to the Tripartite Committee for Electoral Reform and inclusive governance.
IGR, which is headed by Andrew Lavali as the Executive Director, is also one of the institutions that is part of the Tripartite Committee that was charged with the responsibility to look at challenges facing elections and recommend ways for more inclusive, freer, fairer, and peaceful elections in Sierra Leone.
According to the IGR Executive Director’s letter, Sierra Leone has had some problems with all previous elections, including those declared free and fair by local and international observers. Lavali’s letter notes that it is in recognition of these imperfections and the need to make elections more open and peaceful that they see the protest by the main opposition All People’s Congress – APC over the recent elections and the response by government and international partners in establishing a Tripartite Committee on electoral reform as a good opportunity for a deeper and honest reflection on improvement.
The letter furthered that recommendations for electoral reform are equally meant to transform the political culture of a society; it is useful to understand the institutional and leadership cultures that over time have led to the predicament in which we now find ourselves.
It reads that, in seeking solutions to inclusivity and political stability, they bring for your consideration Birch Et Al’s four globally acknowledged factors 3 that elevate the risk of electoral violence and electoral fraud:
1) a highly competitive election that could shift the balance of power;
2) partisan divisions based on identity;
3) electoral rules that enable winning by exploiting identity cleavages; and
4) weak institutional constraints on violence, particularly security-sector bias toward one group, leading perpetrators to believe they will not be held accountable for violence. We note that all four conditions are present in Sierra Leone, and because every election is seen as a zero-sum game for entire regions, the stakes are always unmanageable. Moreover, lines are blurred between opposition demands for fairness and the attacks they wage on other identity groups believed to be unduly benefiting from government. Sadly, years of impunity for security officials and partisans that have engaged in violence has not helped.
However, they proposed five recommendations to address the systemic political violence and injustices as well as to promote electoral integrity.
According to the IGR the Recommendations for improving elections are:
- Make the Sierra Leone Police and justice system more accountable:
Elections and governance will be more secure if partisans that are tempted to act violently know they will be held accountable, even if their party is in power. CSO reports on political violence have fallen on deaf ears, just as the many recommendations of Government’s own commissions of inquiry into past incidences of violent disorder. We recommend the following going forward:
1.1. GoSL undertake a number of police and justice reforms, such as police training in violence de-escalation techniques, managing nonviolent protests, and crowd control.
1.2. GoSL to consider improving intelligence collection to help the SLP respond better to
domestic threats that come through the routine exercise of citizen’s constitutional rights.
1.3. Political parties to commit to having nationally representative police forces as a means
of deterring both political violence and police brutality.
1.4. Justice system should deliver swift and speedy trials for credible domestic threats and as
well as dissidents abroad that incite violence, even if such trials are done in absentia.
1.5. The international community should help Sierra Leone’s security and justice system to
deter social media bullying and threats to peace emanating from abroad.
1.6. With requisite steps in place, the police should allow citizens to peacefully protest.
- Overcoming winner-takes-all: That political parties discriminate against regions, and that
citizens have learnt to embrace hate, is all shaped by the nature of the electoral system that
creates a winner-takes-all situation. To address this, we recommend the following:
2.1. Increased devolution, deconcentrating power in Freetown and deepening decentralization
to ensure that local councils held by opposition and governing parties deliver services
effectively. This could over time reduce the bitterness over presidential elections.
2.2. The constituency-based system used in many elections incentivizes gerrymandering,
census rigging and a “half-country strategy” by political parties. Sierra Leone needs an
electoral system that will ensure minority votes matter and compels political parties to be
present in all districts, and not just in the strongholds they feel entitled to. The current
11.9% threshold for winning a seat under the district block system has not adequately
responded to calls for inclusivity. We recommend a proportional representation system
with a lower threshold of 5% to both increase and enable the presence of political parties
in areas outside their traditional districts.
2.3. Political parties are strongly encouraged to consider adopting a more national character
through the rotation of their leadership among the regions and ethnic identities. No one
region or group should monopolise a party that is meant to serve an entire country. This
proposal is intended to help “de-tribalise and de-regionalise” elections and governance
and incentivise citizens to freely join parties of their choice as well as deter elites from
mobilizing identity groups to maintain power or propel themselves to leadership.
- Electoral grievances should be addressed before a new president takes an oath of office.
In the past four elections, candidates declared winners are immediately sworn into office the day of announcement of results. And no sooner than a new government assumes power, election petitions become useless. On two occasions, judgments on election petitions came almost at the end of tenure of the party under contestation. This has made the courts unattractive for contesting election grievances. To address this situation, we recommend the following:
3.1. As suggested by a CSO – Legal Link on the Tripartite panel, winners of a presidential
election should be sworn into office one month after the announcement of results.
3.2. Polling stations results should be published online within 14 days after the announcement
of results. 3.3. Once the measures above are adopted, aggrieved parties that do not take their petition to court should be given no legitimate platform to complain about electoral irregularities.
- Increase trust in the electoral process. While the 2022 Elections Act is by far the most
responsive instrument to recommendations of international observer missions in previous
elections, it remains vague on many issues such as the openness in tallying and counting votes, and publication of polling station data. When such crucial decisions are kept vague in the law, we are left with the decisions and feeble compromises in liaison meetings organised by the ECSL that hardly compel political parties to reform. The 2022 Elections Act failed to reassure voters despite its excellent provisions and intent. In light of this, we recommend that the following be considered to increase citizen’s trust in elections:
4.1. Like in many other African countries, the tallying process should be broadcast on national television for all Sierra Leoneans to see how their votes are counted.
4.2. A more inclusive local election observation machinery to be established. The CSO election consortium supported by FCDO, previously DFID, in 2018 provides an excellent example of how local groups from diverse backgrounds can be organised to promote transparency and hold each other accountable in the business of promoting free, fair, and peaceful elections. The absence of this facility in 2023 made it difficult for CSOs to have a
coordinated and credible voice on elections and election results. The NDI manual on
election observation lays out clear steps on how CSOs can make sure all interest groups
are represented in local election processes, including the involvement of political parties.
4.3. A more inclusive and open census should be conducted with political parties and interest
groups serving on technical and leadership committees overseeing the population census.
4.4. To make elections meaningful, we recommend that the PPRC invests in capacity building political party to develop systems and competencies for policy-based campaigns and
engagements, and for greater accountability to their membership.
- Establish a transition law on elections: Although Sierra Leone is credited for two peaceful
transfers of power in the past 15 years, perhaps the biggest omission in Sierra Leone’s governance practices is the absence of a transition law that provides for a smooth and structured transfer of power. The bitter experiences in the transfer of power to opposition routinely resulting in the seizure of traveling documents of outgoing officials by in-coming governments, imposition of travels bans and setting up of commissions of inquiry have made government transitions a nightmare. These experiences contribute to making opposition parties disruptive instead of being constructive. It is for this reason that in passing the US Presidential Transition Act of 1963, Congress explained: “Any disruption occasioned by the transfer of the executive power could produce results detrimental to the safety and well-being of the United States and its people.” We strongly recommend that the establishment of a formal transition mechanism by way of law be the biggest legacy of the Tripartite Committee.
Co-Chairs and Esteemed Members, these recommendations are by no means an attempt to add to the already difficult challenge you have at hand. However, please accept this letter as my humble response to your request for submission of written recommendations to enhance your work. My team and I will be happy to meet with you to discuss these recommendations in detail and any other questions you might have.
