AYV News, November 3, 2025
“You are significant to this process. Our democratic culture is rich with your number, rich with your participation, and rich with your vision for a country that has translated political challenges into political opportunities for reforming our governance architecture and for installing legislation that will shape our political behaviour,” Attorney-General told political parties.
Alpha Sesay was speaking at a consultative meeting with political parties at Brookfields Hotel.
The consultation created a platform for participation of political parties in the legislative process by way of reviewing drafted pieces of legislation and understanding the processes the legislative proposal would follow until it arrives in Parliament.
Alpha Sesay said a chunk of the tripartite recommendations and those of the constitutional review white paper dealing with elections would be extracted and taken to parliament for debate and subsequent approval.
The rest of the other provisions, including those touching on entrenched clauses, would be dealt with subsequently.
It was obvious that there would be a new constitution since alterations to the existing one would be enormous,with several new chapters created. Over twenty entrenched clauses would be affected by the alteration, presenting a difficulty in holding a referendum asking over twenty questions to a largely illiterate public.
So the thinking was that to hold several consultations and civic education activities with various sectors of the public, and present a referendum asking a single question requiring a simple ‘yes or no’ answer about whether Sierra Leoneans want the new constitution or not.
The Executive Secretary of PPRC said they were pleased to take part in the consultation, allowing political parties to contribute to the political well-being of the state. Olushogo David said the consultation marked a progress in the implementation of the tripartite recommendations dealing with the PPRC.
The European Union considered the meeting as a platform for strengthening democracy and safeguarding the people’s authority in respect of electoral processes. Els Mortier pledged commitment to supporting processes that would contribute to democratic growth through legislative or other forms of reforms in line with international standards.
Programme Manager for International IDEA, Benigma Ejemba, urged political parties to suppress personal interest and project the interest of the state through open and genuine dialogue on the legislative proposal.
The coordinator for the Tripartite Secretariat said there had been remarkable progress in the implementation of the tripartite recommendations. The legislative proposal was an example of the attention paid to the tripartite process. For Ngolo Katta, the
participation of political parties in the process indicated a deliberate effort to create laws that would build the democratic culture of the state.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs was also on a similar path of developing a youth development act similar to the GEWE to support the participation of young people in politics. It meant that the Ministry would translate recommendations 51 and 52 into an act to speak to the 10 percent quota for young people being employed in elective and appointive positions.
The consultation is organised by the Office of the Attorney-General with funding from the European Union in Sierra Leone through International IDEA.
