THE SIERRA LEONE PARLIAMENT
Sierra Leone, officially known as the Republic of Sierra Leone is a coastal country on the southwest coast of West Africa. The former British Crown Colony and protectorate shares border with the Atlantic Ocean in Southwest, Liberia in Southeast and is half surrounded by Guinea in North and northeast.
Sierra Leone has a history of coup d’état which resulted into a civil war that lasted for eleven (11) years. Sierra Leone is a Constitutional Republic that runs a unicameral legislature, known as the parliament of the Republic of Sierra Leone.
Their major functions are Representation, Legislation/Law making, Budget scrutiny and allocation of budget to Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and oversight functions. The current is the fifth session of the fifth parliament of the second Republic of Sierra Leone and has 146 members of which 128 are male and 18 female members which is 12.33%, 136 were elected through plurality vote in single-member constituencies and 14 Paramount chiefs’ members from the 14 rural districts elected by indirect vote.
Parliamentarians are elected into office for a period of five (5) year-term. The basic requirements for voters and elected is eighteen (18) years old, a citizen, of sound mind and can read and write English. Method of voting is by secret ballot. The death of any member will result in having a by-election to take office immediately winner is announced can be sworn into office on the same day except the member died within six (6) months to the next general elections the seat can wait otherwise there must be no vacant seat in the Parliament of Sierra Leone.
In the 2018 general elections sixteen (16) political parties contested out of this number four (4) won, All People’s Congress (APC), Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), Coalition for Change (C4C), and National Grand Coalition NGC), The All People’s Congress (APC) and The Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) winning many seats of which the Sierra Leone People’s Party currently have the majority seats in Parliament and they are the ruling party.