A Sect of Sierra Leonean Lawyers Against President Bio’s PR System for the 2023 Elections

A team of Lawyers headed by former Chief Justice of Belize, Dr. Abdulai O. Conteh, and Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara, Esq. have filed an Originating Notice of Motion urging the Supreme Court to declare President Bio’s directive to change the 2023 electoral system to Proportional Representation as unconstitutional & void.

The Originating Notion of Motion was filed days after the Deputy Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Umaru Napoleon Koroma, Esq., laid in Parliament regulations for the conduct of the 2023 multi-tier elections: The Public Elections (Local Council PR System) Regulations, 2022, and Public Elections (District Block PR System) Regulations, 2022. 

Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divisions (political parties) of the electorate.

“It will be recalled, that the Proportional Representation, is itself a product of its time. It is a full-back position; when there are no constituencies or wards for the purpose of public election in the country. This was the rationale and the prevailing circumstances that warranted and justified the amendment introduced in 2001 as now contained in section 38A of the constitution,” the group of Lawyers maintained in their press statement issued on November 28, 2022.