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SLPP Raises Alarm over Constitutional Amendments to Election of Speaker by MPs SLPP PRESS RELEASE: UNWARRANTED AND
DISTURBING AMENDMENTS TO 1991 CONSTITUTION OF SIERRA LEONE
The proposed Bill seeks to alter a
fundamental qualification for those aspiring to be Speaker of Parliament. The
present constitutional provision demands that only persons with legal
background and with the experience of a judge of the Superior Court of
Judicature or qualified to be appointed as such can hold that office. The
proposed Bill now suggests that everyone from among Members of Parliament who
have served for five years or persons qualified to be Members of Parliament
can hold that office. Under section 79 sub-section (1) of
the 1991 Constitution the Speaker of Parliament “shall be elected by the
Members of Parliament from among persons who are Members of Parliament or are
qualified to be elected as such and who are qualified to be appointed judges
of the Superior Court of Judicature or have held such office.” The proposed amendment to section 79
referred to above reads: “The Speaker of Parliament shall be elected by the
Members of Parliament from among persons who are: (a) Members of Parliament and who had
served as such for not less than five years; or (b) Qualified to be a Member of
Parliament.” Government is also proposing an
amendment to Section 80 sub-section (3) of the 1991 Constitution by extending
the tenure of the Deputy Speaker from being elected at the first sitting of
each session of Parliament to election at the first sitting of Parliament
which now gives the holder a five year rather than an annual term. The SLPP wish to state that the
current provisions are in place because of the decadence that prevailed in Further, that they had the mandate of
the people of this country as freely expressed by their representatives in
the 1990 Peter Tucker Constitutional Review Commission, Parliament and in the
1991 National Referendum on the Constitution. It is also apparent that the drafters
of that Constitution and the representatives of the people then demanded that
someone with legal background should hold that office because such persons by
their training and experience will be independently minded to impartially
arbitrate proceedings, will understand the intricacies of the law making
process and will be more equipped to interpret the provisions of the
Constitution and standing orders. The amendments suggested by
Government, are designed to take us back to those inglorious authoritarian
days as they are taken from the pages of the infamous 1978 One Party
Constitution which did not provide legal qualification for the speakership and Parliament was reduced to a rubber stamp
authority of the Executive. Furthermore, These amendments coming at a time
when an eighty (80) man Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) has been
constituted and have commenced sittings on reviewing the nation’s extant
Constitution, undermines the efforts of that forum in its infancy and fails
to depict a commitment to the ongoing national consultative process which
they have commenced. We do hope there is no sinister
motive to replace the current Speaker and we therefore call on Government to
allow the CRC to perform its mandate without direct or indirect interruption
and to demonstrate a strong commitment to that venture by withdrawing the
proposed amendments in the interest of deepening our fledgling democracy
through genuine constitutional reform.
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