The Opposition Leader in the House of Parliament last week raised concerns with huge lack of trust and confidence in the leadership of the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL).
Hon. Chernor Ramadan Maju Bah, whose leadership also constitutes the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) in Parliament, raised concerns over the growing unethical and distrustfulness in the performances and activities of ECSL in the conduct of public elections at constituency, wards and chiefdom levels.
In a letter dated 2 June 2022, addressed to the Chief Electoral Commissioner and Chairman of ECSL, Mohamed Kenewui Konneh, copied all diplomatic missions in the country, Hon. Bah reminded the ECSL Chairman of his controversial appointment to the delicate position.
“You have seen firsthand the level of mistrust and anger that characterizes our national politics and how all of this impact negatively on national peace, cohesion and security. It is undeniable that the undertone for the prevailing political tension in the country is as a result of the glaring mistrust the populace has over government institutions,” observed Hon. Bah.
Also as part of concerns raised in a letter addressed to ECSL’s Konneh, is the reintroduction of the Proportional Representation system in the approaching June 24, 2023 elections.
Hon Bah said the past four years had recorded many incidents that transformed the civic business of elections and governance into political gaslighting, thereby creating a fragile and vulnerable environment for the outbreak of violence as was witnessed in Constituency 110 in the Western Area, in Ward 155 and Constituency 046 in Koinadugu District and recently in Constituency 056 in the Tonkolili District.
The opposition leader recalled undemocratic incidences by the government ranging from the removal of ten APC Members of Parliament who were illegally replaced by defeated ruling SLPP candidates, to the selection of electoral commissioners without consulting with opposition parties as stipulated by law, the unprecedented Mid-Term Housing and Population Census – which was fraught with several problems, including the withdrawal of funding by major funders, the strike actions by enumerators, the breakdown of iPads used for capturing data, and the widespread boycott of the census.
He also said the country’s political environment had been subjected to so much fragility that its electoral and other governance structures are tottering.
“It is against this background that I draw your attention to the fact that your conduct as Chief Electoral Commissioner is crucial to the success of our democracy, stability and pulling the country away from this unfortunate situation it finds itself,” he writes, stating: “A huge responsibility is upon your shoulders as the due processes and fair outcome of the June 2023 Presidential and General Elections depend on your neutrality relating to any decisions and actions you and the Electoral Commission take now and going forward.”
He continued that on Tuesday 31 May 2022, the Government announced incredulous Census figures as the country’s total population and population distribution. The opposition leader said the very flawed figures and the haste with which they were put together and announced, in total disregard for national and international technically sound advice given as to timelines and other pertinent criteria, further validated concerns that “the central objective of the census exercise is for political rather than national development imperatives”.
Hon added: “We are also aware of the planned introduction of a proportional system that would very likely take the incredulous figures as the basis for allocation of electoral districts and other distributional processes.” He also draws the attention of the Chief Electoral Commissioner to the illegalities of these two activities reiterating that they are not in the national interest of the citizens of Sierra Leone.
According to Hon Bah, the legality of the census, firstly, the instrument was not properly laid in Parliament and even after opposition MPs objected to its impropriety, the Government merely reintroduced the instrument without following the established procedures for it to become legally binding, resulting in the World Bank’s withdrawal of technical and financial support to that process.
He said owing to its overtly political objectives, the process was widely rejected by the main opposition APC, several other political parties and a substantial number of members of the public.
He further cautioned the commission’s leadership, saying: “As you can see from the strange figures announced on Tuesday, we have been told that our nation’s capital city and its environs are far less populated than the number of voters in this same capital in 2018; that it is smaller than its 2004 census conducted by the SLPP Government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, and that it is smaller than it was in 2015. This brazenness, arrogance and fakery fly in the face of other projections, surveys and visible evidence of the population of Freetown and its environs. It is indeed a feat of magical proportion that the only regions that grew their populations are the South and Eastern Provinces. You would agree with me, Mr Chief Electoral Commissioner, that such brazen manipulation of critical statistics could constitute considerable risk to national development, peace and security.”
He said that regarding the planned introduction of the PR system, as a lawyer of about two decades of practice and a lawmaker for fifteen years, he would like to explain why the Mid-Term Census “is illegal”.
He stated: “Mr Commissioner, changes to any part of our 1991 Constitution requires no less than a 2/3 majority because the entire constitution is regarded as an entrenched document. Section 108 only highlights the sections which require a referendum or plebiscite before they could be amended. As a matter of precedent, our Constitution has only been amended twice and both amendments have always been done unanimously (all voting in favour), no dissenting voice. The first time it was amended was in 2001 for the introduction of the PR system since some parts of the country were still inaccessible. The most recent was in 2013, regarding the election of the Speaker of Parliament.
He further schooled the ECSL Chief: “The PR system itself has been tried twice in Sierra Leone in 1996 and in 2002 and on both occasions it failed because it is incongruous with the Sierra Leone political exposure. With the PR system, MPs are removed from the electorates because under the District Block System, they are chosen by the political parties. Apart from the fact that it takes away the relationship between the people and their representatives, and by extension political accountability of the representative to the constituents; it also further conflicts with the Public Elections Act 2012 in terms of how to deal with petitions relating to quasi criminal offences.”
He added that it is there understanding that there is a plan to use the Public Elections Act to introduce a PR system. He warned that any attempt to do so is unconstitutional as there is no way legally to introduce an amendment to the Constitution without it going through the Constitutional Amendment procedure. He urged the ECSL to be guided that Acts of Parliament may be used to give effect to the Constitution but not amend it.
Hon Bah essentially informed that “the PR system will be a disaster for democracy in our beloved nation”. “It is therefore suspicious why the Government would insist on introducing a system that has failed twice especially when Section 38 of the Sierra Leone 1991 Constitution is very clear on the circumstances under which the PR system could be used,” he says. “Additionally, such a dramatic change to the electoral system just as major elections are around the corner portends ineffective public participation in the election of especially their parliamentary representatives and undermines the efficacy of democracy in the country.”
Concluding, Hon. Bah stated: “I therefore beseech you to use your good offices and good conscience to refrain from being a part of any attempt to undermine democracy through the use of discredited data from a disputed census; as well as the imposition of an electoral system that has already been twice proven to be inappropriate for our country. At this very critical moment when political tensions are so high, political dialogue and consensus building have become non-existent; the onus is on you to employ tact, caution, fairness and neutrality.
“In the discharge of this great responsibility, let your decisions and actions burnish your integrity, highlight your patriotism and position you prominently on the positive side of history.”
