By ophaniel.gooding@awokonewspaper.sl
SIERRA LEONE, Freetown – In allaying the fears of Members of Parliament on the provisions of the Public Elections Act 2O22 after a debate of the Bill, in the well of Parliament on Monday 18 July, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohamed Lamin Tarawally said, “ You make good laws the time you are in office because tomorrow when you leave office you will not regret it.”
He urged parliament to approve the bill in order to make better laws for Sierra Leone’s democracy.
The AGMOJ explained that the bill is neither President Maada Bio’s nor that of the government, but rather it stems from the continuous recommendations made by developing partners and election observers.
“Our partners are always working with us to ensure that we legislate very good laws for ourselves in this country. The law we are making now is for Sierra Leoneans,” he added.
In his response to the issues raised after the debate, the AG said he would not respond to the PR System because the Speaker, Hon. Abass Bundu prior stated that debate about the PR system is not going to happen in this parliament because it is already embedded in the laws of Sierra Leone and in the constitution of Sierra Leone which is the highest law of the land.
The AG said, “the district block representation system, a form of PR which is mentioned in the bill, was introduced into our laws as far back as 2OO1 by way of a constitutional amendment that was encapsulated in section 38a.”
However, in responding to violence in the time of counting on section 86(1) of the Bill, the AG said the Bill states that “if there is any violence in any area, you look at the violence, you consider the effect.” If at a particular station that effect is not as grave that it would impact or affect the entire outcome of the result, NEC is suggesting that the Chief Electoral Commissioner should have the liberty to decide on that, rather than cancel the entire result, as that would be more costly to the State and more traumatizing to the candidates and the electorate. ”
On the question of the National Identification Number which was heatedly debated several references were made to section 31 of the constitution.
According to the AG Section 31 only gave the criteria for a person to be eligible to vote or be voted for. He said that the Public Elections Act section 25(1) reads that for being satisfied as to the claim of a person to be registered as a voter, a Registration Officer may request from the person applying to be registered any of the following:–
(a) a birth certificate or other such document issued under the authority of an enactment; (b) a naturalisation certificate; (c) the testimony of a member of the Local Council in the area of his residence; (d) a statutory declaration giving particulars of the person’s birth; (e) any other satisfactory evidence of the person’s entitlement to be registered as a voter.
He also drew attention again to section 31 of the constitution, which says every citizen of Sierra Leone being eighteen years of age and above and of sound mind shall have the right to vote, and accordingly shall be entitled to be registered as a voter for the purposes of public elections and referenda.
The AGMOJ explained that the constitution was done in 1991 and the Public Elections Act was enacted in 2012. He said the conditions referred to in section 31 are not what our Election Act of 2012 states but “because we are a decent country, a law was enacted that gives further qualification for anybody to be registered. If the person reaches or qualifies to be registered as a voter, it states the conditions.”
He said those conditions are not in section 31, but nobody could say that is a constitutional breach because the conditions in section 31 are quite different from section 25(1) of the Public Elections Act.
The reason why I referenced this, the AG said, “is for us all to see that we continue to make laws as we progress in life. Sierra Leone is not a static state, and for us as Sierra Leoneans, we are not static. We move along with the times. The constitution is there, it gives the general provision and it is for us to make laws or regulations that suit us as we move along. ” OG/20/7/2022
