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Leading Opposition Lawyer, Dr. Abdulai O. Conteh has today Friday 26th January described the Judgement on the PR system as a sad day for the Rule of Law and he wish there was another court to recourse to.
He made this statement while speaking in an interview with Sierra Leone’s BBC correspondent Umaru Fofana.
He said that, “It’s a sad day for the Rule of Law in this country, when the issues the plaintiff sought to have been vindicated in court were clear and I hope ably presented before the court but they thought otherwise that’s there perogative and discretion. I only wish there was another court to recourse to. It was not vindicated by the 53 odd pages that His lordship the Chief Justice read out this morning.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Abdulai. O Conteh and Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara, Esq, had earlier filed a notice of motion urging the Supreme Court to rule against President Bio’s directives to transform the 2023 electoral system to Proportional Representation.
According to Umaru Fofana, the Lawyers for the plaintiffs have argued that eventhough the Constitution makes provisions for the PR System, the prevailing circumstances did not allow for it. They said that the country has already existing boundaries so no need to locked them in a district block system.
However, The Supreme Court of Sierra Leone ruled in favour of using the Proportional Representative system (PR) in the June 2023 Multi-tier Elections.
Sierra Leone Chief Justice, Desmond Babatunde Edwards in agreement with four other judges agreed with the directives of President Julius Maada Bio to conduct the 2023 national elections for ordinary members of Parliament by the Proportional Representation which they believe were done within the framework of the law.
