Dr. Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara, the All Peoples Congress (APC) presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, has issued a statement endorsing the party’s position on the Constitution of Sierra Leone (Amendment) Bill, 2025, while also issuing a sharp call for internal party democracy and accountability.

In a statement dated 10 August 2026, Kamara expressed support for several provisions of the Bill, including the constitutional guarantee of a minimum 30 percent representation for women in political nominations and the broadening of political participation for Sierra Leoneans holding dual citizenship. He also backed the retention of the First-Past-the-Post constituency-based electoral system and the 55 percent threshold for presidential elections.

“The bond between a citizen and the Member of Parliament who answers to that citizen by name is one of the few direct relationships our democracy has, and it should be restored rather than abolished,” Kamara said.

However, Kamara used the statement to speak “beyond the Bill,” arguing that the principle that “the Constitution belongs to the people” must also apply within political parties . He described a political party as a “trust” held on behalf of its members, stating that “leadership of a party is a tenancy” rather than an “inheritance”.

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“If it is wrong for Parliament to disregard the expressed wishes of citizens on a constitutional question, then it is wrong to disregard the expressed wishes of citizens on any question on which they have already spoken,” Kamara said. “The ballot is the highest form of consultation known to a democracy. Its consequences cannot be optional”.

He referenced the unresolved issues following the 24 June 2023 elections, noting that “national commitments arrived at through dialogue after those elections remain unimplemented to this day”. He argued that no leadership has “the moral authority to bring that struggle to an end, alter its course, or redefine its purpose without first hearing from the people in whose name it was undertaken”.

Addressing Members of Parliament directly, Kamara noted that under the proposed proportional representation system, MPs would be elected from district lists rather than constituencies, meaning accountability would “run upward, toward those who compile the list, rather than outward, toward the citizens who must live with the result”. He cautioned that this system risks creating a Parliament that “answers to itself” rather than to the nation .

“A system in which representatives answer to lists rather than to people is precisely how any leadership, in any party, comes to believe that it need not consult the people at all,” he stated.

Kamara noted that the constitutional amendment requires the affirmative votes of not less than two-thirds of all 149 Members of Parliament—one hundred votes—and that “fifty Members are enough to withhold passage, and our party alone holds more than fifty seats”. He urged lawmakers to consider the historical significance of their vote, stating: “History will not record the whip. It will record the vote”.

“A principle that is invoked only when it is convenient is not a principle. It is a tactic,” Kamara said, calling for consistency in demanding consultation and accountability. “Let the standard we demand of the Government be the standard we accept for ourselves”.

He concluded by adopting the party’s closing words: “Country first. Democracy always. The people must have the final say”.