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Attorney General and Minister of Justice Alpha Sesay has publicly condemned the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) for backtracking on a proposed 50.1% presidential election threshold, revealing that the party’s leadership had previously agreed to the reform in writing.
The controversy centers on the Constitution of Sierra Leone (Amendment) Bill, 2025. The legislation, piloted by Sesay, proposes replacing the current 55% threshold required to win a presidential election with a simple majority (50% plus one vote), alongside a geographic spread requirement. The bill is largely designed to implement recommendations from the Justice Edmond Cowan Constitutional Review Committee and the Tripartite Committee.
While ruling SLPP members have defended the threshold change as a necessary democratic reform, APC lawmakers have recently pushed back, calling for broader consensus and a return to the 55% requirement.
During a recent interview, Sesay expressed intense frustration over the shift in the opposition’s stance, framing it as a failure of leadership and a breach of trust.
“The same people who come and say, ‘let’s stick with the Tripartite proposal’… the same people who come out and say, ‘no we don’t want 50-plus-1, now 55%,’ that is not leadership,” Sesay stated.
Sesay noted that he has consistently kept his office open to the APC, working with them in good faith and even highlighting their collaborative progress to international actors and members of his own party.
“Then at the last minute, [they] try to take a different position,” Sesay said, calling the reversal deeply disappointing. “It’s a waste of my time. … You want to get an agreement, say ‘okay we agree on this,’ we get a compromise, and you’re expecting them to stick to that. Of course, some of it is in writing.”
The renewed constitutional debate, which resumed in parliament on August 3, 2026, exposes deep, ongoing divisions between the SLPP and the APC.
The threshold dispute follows a turbulent period in the legislature. Earlier this year, the APC launched a parliamentary boycott in February 2026 to protest President Julius Maada Bio’s appointment of Edmond Sylvester Alpha as Chief Electoral Commissioner. The opposition argued the appointment violated the Agreement for National Unity.
Mediated talks eventually brought the APC back to parliament in April 2026, after the government formally committed to restructuring the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) by December 31, 2026.
Despite that breakthrough, the constitutional reform process remains heavily contested. Beyond the presidential threshold, the parties remain deadlocked over other key provisions in the bill, including appointment procedures for the Search and Nominations Committee and the government’s push for a permanent Proportional Representation electoral system.
