SLPP Gov’t puts democracy behind bars for election of speaker
Democracy is the government of the people, for the people and by the people. It also has principles in ensuring that it is not only the rule of the majority but as well as the rights of the minority.
The two political parties including the weak ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the strong main Opposition All Peoples Congress Party (APC) had the opportunity to govern Sierra Leone in the last 30 or more years. Both parties have ideally governed the country with various reforms and policies based on their parties’ ideologies.
The main Opposition All Peoples Congress Party (APC) has formed the greatest representation in the House of Parliament with 68 seats. The incumbent Sierra Leone People’s Party will be forming a less popular representation in the House of Parliament with 49 seats which leaves them very uncomfortable considering their wind-rush policies and over ambitious promises among them is the Free Primary and Secondary Education which was the platform His Excellency the President Dr. Julius Maada Bio campaigned on.
Just after the election of His Excellency, State House had put out crude and uncivil press releases with so much errors whilst other instructions where directly directed by State House in disguise among them is the appointment of the Clerk of Parliament a position which should be apolitical despite the President has the Constitutional powers to appoint whosoever he deems fit to hold such position.
What is raising serious public concern is the fact that the man who was appointed as Clerk of Parliament Honorable Umar Paran Tarawally was one time Member of Parliament under the SLPP for Constituency 069 in Bo District. As part of his mission, Honorable Umar Paran Tarawally was quick to postpone the First Meeting of the Fifth Parliament of the Second Republic to Tuesday 24th April 2018 thereby delaying the Session for one week on grounds to campaigning and buying time to ensure that the SLPP has the Speaker in a wind-rush manner *(Paopa).*
Interestingly, despite the APC has the majority, but again cannot command a two-third majority nor any other party but procedurally, Parliamentarians will have to vote for two consecutive times if at all a two-third majority cannot be secured by any political party voting for a third time could emerge for a simple majority in which the APC stands the greatest chance to secure the Speaker.
The SLPP is now faced with ruthless and restless politics to stand against the People’s mandate which has left Sierra Leoneans in a confused state regarding the election of the Speaker of House of Parliament.
As the ruthless battle for the speakership continues, the country’s Judiciary was thrown to the dustbin as we witnessed the worst discriminatory hearing in our history where injunctions were slammed on some APC MP’S restraining them from taking part in the election of the Speaker of Parliament in order to reduce their number but the same Judiciary failed to hear petitions brought to it by the main opposition APC seeking the same injunction.
However, the substantive Speaker in the House of Parliament Hon. S. B. B. Dumbuya has put out a press release which puts an indefinite suspension on the business of the day, while the Clerk of Parliament also puts out another release contradicting the speaker’s release; situation that saw the postponement of swearing in of MPs and the election of Speaker to today, Wednesday, 25th April.
The SLPP has exposed itself too early by abusing the rights of thousands of Sierra Leoneans who had voted for their MPs.
As if that was not enough another disturbing situation is the fact that appointed Ministers designate like Jacob Jusu Saffa had engaged IMF as the Substantive Minister of Finance without seeking Parliamentary approval as stated in Section 56 2c “A person shall not be appointed a Minister or Deputy Minister unless-his nomination is approved by Parliament.
We have seen most of the Presidential appointees deliberately flouting certain aspects of the Constitution of Sierra Leone.
By this trend, many Sierra Leoneans are worried that the country stands the risk of running it in a military way by suspending the Constitution- and hence the rule by decree.
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