THE 50% + 1 DEPICTS UNPOPULARITY AND DESPERATE JUNTARISM…BIO GOVT MUST THINK BACK
Moses Gbow
The 1991 constitution which was initiated by the erstwhile president of the republic of Sierra Leone Late Joseph Saidu Momoh has been revered by many Sierra Leonean as the most nationalistic document ever put forward in our country history. Amongst the many positives in this constitution are specifically the constituent arrangement in electing members of parliament, and also the 55 % threshold which a presidential candidate should acquire to become the President of the republic of SierraLeone.
Unfortunately, immediately after the constitution was voted for unanimously by Sierra Leoneans in a referendum, there was a military coup and many believed that the coupist were surrogate to the SLPP just as the RUF. With justification to the above we heard of a statement made by the current president that when he was Junta leader he manipulated the 1996 election in favor of SLPP and that wore green but a different green. A prominent figure in the SLPP Dr Alie Kabba was also implicated by a War Criminal Charles Taylor as the founder of RUF. The above is an evidence of the fact that many of the problems we have encountered as a nation is the architectural hand work of the SLPP.
Moving forward, during the periods of the junta regime, the 1991 constitution was suspended and the junta launched a propagandering attack against the constitution that it has many pitfalls and should be expunged and changed.
Despite the plot to get rid of the 1991 constitution by SLPP and it accomplices this document has stood the test of time.
However, in 1996 general election, a unanimous agreement among political parties was agreed upon for the election to be conducted through by proportional representation instead of constituency due to the prevailing situation then. Reasons propelled was that, there was war and many areas were under Rebel control so it was impossible for an elections to be conducted in areas controlled by Rebels. It was a reasonable justification that based on the prevailing situation the best way an election could have been conducted was through by proportional representation.
Major disadvantages during this period was, the two elections conducted was marred with blantant malpractice. In the 1996 election, there was voting turn out with over one hundred percent in the south east. For the sake of best practice those areas with impunified malpractice should have been cancelled but instead the result was allowed to stand, which gave advantage to the rouges element (SLPP) with more representations in parliament. And with a ruthless junta leader who wore green then at the helm of affairs supporting the SLPP; no one dare to ask a question. Widespread Malpractice also replicate in 2002 election as observed by the U.N
Another disadvantage of a proportional representation is it thus remove the people far away from their representatives. People could hardly know who exactly is representing them in parliament as the representation of the members of parliament does not depend on the capacity and competence of the representative but maybe the charisma or popularity of the Presidential candidate or the popularity of the party it self.
Proportional representation do not allow electorate to scrutinize their representatives contrary to constituency election, we can affirm that over the years the voting patterns have changed, in 2018 some member of parliament loose their constituent seat whilst the presidential candidate of the same political party won with land slide victory. This is an indication that Sierra Leoneans are very enlightening , so therefore the populace deserves to vett and know the people that will represent them in parliament.
Furthermore, there is a Conjoined relationship to the proportional representation and the proposed ploy to replace the 55 percent threshold with the 50 plus1 alongside the infamous census all conjugate together.
This whole plot of destroying our hard earned democracy started with a surrogate Civil society activist aligned to the SLPP, who is also a card carrying member of SLPP and a founding member of the SLPP Reform group.
Andrew Lavalie whose request for an un precedented mid term census was aptly calculated together with his pay master .The so called mid term census suppose to be the first of the ploy to destroy our country’s peace and tranquility. The systematic arranged plan was, after the dysfunctional census the next plan of action is to generate bloated fictional numbers in advantage to the southeast, and later the delimitation boundaries, followed by creation of New Districts in the south east and finally imposition of the proportional representation system.
Having succeeded in these diabolic plans , President Bio next mission is to bulldoze and change the 55 percent to 50 + one just as he did with the imposition of the speaker of parliament and the removal of ten opposition MP. Therein in a general election the Bio led government will go ahead calling any kind of fictitious figures which will give the SLPP a winning results.
President Bio should note in mind that the intentions of the drafters of the 1991 was to have, a national President whose popularity cut across the country. It aim at creating a unified, cohesive and inclusive government of which irrespective of regions and ethnic groups. It also aim at naturally compelling any government in power to be conglomeration of all ethnic groups.
If H.E Maada Bio is to archive his heinous and diabolic plans, im afraid that he is leading us to the path to destruction and our country to sharply degenerating to the state of nature
