The Parliament of Sierra Leone sitting at Tower Hill, in Freetown has postponed its sittings to October 2022. The postponement came as a result of the Wednesday demonstrations in Freetown between angry protesters and security forces resulting to several deaths including police officers and civilians.
The 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone vests the legislative power in the Parliament. While the President is not a part of the Legislative part of Parliament the Constitution specifies that no Minister or Deputy Minister will be part of it too, but the Executive. The Parliament itself consists of a total of 146 seats, 132 directly elected members from single member constituencies and 14 Paramount Chiefs from the 14 Districts of Sierra Leone.
The Speaker of the House Hon. Dr. Abass Bundu was elected by the Members of Parliament from among the persons present as MPs and who had served for not less than five years; or were qualified to be Members of Parliament and who had served as such for not less than ten years” is the Head of Parliament.
The current Parliament was elected on 7th March, 2018, the fourth after the end of the civil conflict, and it has four Parties and three Independent Members as represented, namely, the A.P.C. (All Peoples Congress) the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP), National Grand Coalition (NGC), and Coalition 4 Change (C4C).
The Parliament at present has 32 Committees, the latest being the Committee on Statutory Instruments set up in October 2013. Out of the 32 Committees, 7 are House related Committees which includes Committees for specific tasks such as vetting of Appointments by the Office of the President; Legislative Committee which analyzes draft Bills, etc. 3 are finance related committees namely, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Finance Committee and the Transparency and Accountability Committee and the rest of the 22 are subject related oversight committees covering the different MDAs/areas in the executive, including security.
Section 73 (3) broadly describes Parliament’s mandate as having the Legislative Power of Sierra Leone as vested in it. That is, they make laws for the peace, security, order and good governance of Sierra Leone. Under the current circumstances, Parliament’s functions cover Representation; Legislation/Law-making; Budget scrutiny and allocation of Budget to MDA’s and Oversight Functions.
With a vision to become beacon of peace, hope, democracy and good governance, Parliament’s mission therefore is to make government work for the people of Sierra Leone by representing the voiceless through law-making, transparency, accountability and equitable distribution of resources.
Against this background, the foreign relations briefing held on Thursday 11th August at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations has led to unanswered questions on the country’s security sector and this has warranted a shift in policy and timetable of activities of MPs to October.
The House considers that coming back from recess in September would be too futile if current security arrangements in the country are not addressed by the government. Many MPs on Wednesday expressed despondency over the lack of vision of the Office of National Security and also capacity of the Sierra Leone Police to maintain peace and security.
The recession was supposedly to impact positively on the MPs’ activities and the country and this would be reflected when they come back. But unfortunately, this has now been forecasted by them as different as they sensed huge disadvantages ahead of them coming back in September. Aside the fat bonus cheques they have enjoyed as recession pay and going about their private businesses, yet they were more concerned about the country than themselves.
Now it is clear that an early come back in September wouldn’t be possible as security has caused a huge concern and this must be addressed considering the recent political drama in the House over the controversial Public Elections Bill now passed into law and awaiting the President’s Proclamation or Assent, and the violent clashes on Wednesday.
