mohamedj.bah@awokonewspaper.sl
Freetown, SIERRA LEONE – The 2023 Presidential Candidate of the National Unity and Reconciliation Party (NURP), who also doubles as the Party Chairman, Jonathan P. J. Sandy has said that the Proportional Representation (PR) System does not favour the smaller political parties in the country.
He said the aims and objectives of the PR System, for which he was one of the proponents, were far from being achieved in the just concluded elections.
Sierra Leone he said has had three elections under the PR system, noting that the spirit of the system in 1996, when it was first introduced under late President Tejan Kabba created the opportunity to have more political parties in Parliament, wherein younger parties then like the UNPP, PDP made significant inroads added to the APC and SLPP.
He maintained that instead of the PR system creating the atmosphere for younger political parties to strive in the country, and help to bridge the gap of political identity and regionalism, which have been major challenges, it closed the space on them by allowing only the two main traditional parties in Parliament.
Sandi maintained that there are different PR Systems; the National Proportional Representation and the District Block, of which he said Sierra Leone took into effect the latter in the recent elections.
“When you compare the different types of electoral systems and models, First Past the Post, which is the winner takes all, the PR system and many others electoral models, we believe that the context in Africa, … PR system if properly designed and laws legislated should overcome political pluralism. Our problem now in Africa is the issue of electoral competition,” he stated.
In the context of Sierra Leone, he earlier argued that the PR System would help to tackle tribalism and regionalism, citing South Africa, where he said they introduced such a model in their Constitution with a minimum threshold of 0.2%, which helped to tackle racism, in a multi cultural society.
He said “The major driver of political instability or conflict is as a result of political competition, from different tribes and regions. The PR System did not happen as we expected, as the PR System based on its design by law does not favour the younger parties. “The guidelines and design of the system disenfranchised us, “he said.
The policy framework did not favour them, as the threshold of 11.9% is too high.
The process was designed in such a way that parties need to double their candidates, a process which he said cost huge amount of money. “I only filled candidates in Bo and Kono”.
“In that manner, the law discriminated against younger parties, and therefore as we speak, we could not perform well for many reasons.
One of the reasons he highlighted is the threshold, which he said is too high.” The threshold of the PR System is unrealistic, statistical 5% is significant. South Africa is about 0.2 %”. He said in Eastern, Europe, Sweden and Germany, everybody practice PR but the system is accommodating over there.
The Way the PR threshold was determined was wrong, he said it is not national representation. Thus, he added the calculation should have been the number of votes candidates have over the number of votes cast in that district multiply by the number of seats in that district.
He also mentioned that there was little understanding of the PR System and the time was not there as well ,”It was designed to close the political space against younger political parties”.
Going forward, he said we need to come back to the drawing board to create a level playing field, wherein government will provide subvention to political parties in order for them to educate their people on the system.” If we get subvention, then we will be able to train our membership about the PR system. So, the PR system which we thought will create a level playing field and strengthen the capacity for younger political parties to come forward, has not be very productive and meaningful, it failed.”
Talking about best electoral system, he said we need to review the legal policy framework, in relations to the threshold of the PR, which is too high.
Also the time the law was promulgated for the PR System, there was no time left for the political parties to internalise such to their membership, which he said created lots of doubts about the system.
The purpose of the PR system he said “I don’t think was to overcome identity or regional electoral competition. I think the purpose was not that, the purpose was to create the political space for two party state both the APC and SLPP.
He said he did not campaign much because he is aware of the two electoral phases, normative and the operational phases.” If society and government doesn’t get the phase one right, which includes the legal, policy framework, recruitment and selection of people, then the operational phase, which is the day of the election, the outcome will be skewed”.
An Independent Honourable Member of Parliament in the Western Area Urban, Dennis Cole said “This PR System is really disadvantageous to us as independent candidates, and also it makes us look like we are a political party as we have to campaign all over Western Urban.”
He said they did not have the vote they were supposed to have because people decided to vote for political parties and did not understand how the system work. “The threshold was too high as well.”
The expectation of people on the PR system was to have more representations from different political parties and individuals both male and female in Parliament and the Council but it rather solidified the grip of the APC and the SLPP in Parliament.
Therefore, after the result were announced on Saturday by ECSL Boss, wherein no other political party gained access to Parliament other than SLPP and APC, Dr Kandeh Kolleh Yumkelleh who was a member in the last Parliament twitted that the PR threshold poses serious limitation to younger political parties, as he also failed to meet the threshold. MJB/4/7/2023
