As Sylvia Blyden resumes her powerfully researched analytical audio broadcasts on Monday 9th June, no elections for President in June 2023 if Section 48 possibility emerges.

Letters from the Political Parties Regulation Commission (PPRC) to various political parties and which have been seen by Awareness Times Newspaper indicate that the PPRC is set to enforce Section 35 of the Sierra Leone Constitution which allows political parties to sponsor Presidential Candidates but with a caveat that the internal organisation of such political parties are to conform to democratic principles.

Amongst these “democratic principles” is the conduct of regular election at all levels of executives who will then be the delegates (electoral college) that choose their Presidential Candidate.

If a political party cannot credibly elect executives, it cannot be allowed to function until it does so.

This means non-functional parties cannot nominate presidential candidates.

Over the years, these constitutionally required democratic internal arrangements of parties did not matter to the PPRC and so non-functional briefcase and one-man, one-woman parties were allowed to nominate Presidential Candidates at the Electoral Commission. The majority of registered political parties fall into this latter ignoble category of being non-functional.

Only three political parties, the SLPP, APC and the NGC have a semblance of structures that can be subjected to elections across the country. The organised nature of a fourth party, the C4C is constricted to only Kono District.

Noteworthy is whilst the governing SLPP has perfected the election of all its executives and chosen their Presidential Candidate, all the three main opposition parties of APC, NGC and C4C are now embroiled in internecine battles amongst members impugning each other or dismissing outcomes of internal elections which should make up delegates that will elect their Presidential Candidate for this year’s Presidential Elections.

If the PPRC goes on to enforce Section 35(2) of the Constitution as a prerequisite for functionality of political parties then Sierra Leone may find itself in a very unique situation.

This is a situation where Section 48 of the 2022 Electoral Laws will be applied.

So what is in this Section 48?

Well, it is a Law which has existed for over two decades now but the circumstances never arose for it to be used. So it has never been used.

Section 48 says that if only one political party nominates a presidential candidate on Nomination Day then the country should not bother to conduct any Presidential Elections that year.

Rather, Section 48 says on that Nomination Day, the Chief Electoral Commissioner should immediately proclaim that single candidate as the duly elected President of Sierra Leone for the next 5 years after tenure of sitting President ends.

So if the sitting President is going for a Second Term and he is the only one nominated then he just easily continues for another five years automatically when his First Term ends with no Presidential Elections to be conducted.

So let’s examine what is happening now in Sierra Leone whose current presidential tenure ends soon with Presidential Elections slated for June 2023.

For now, only the sitting President, H.E. Julius Maada Bio has been chosen by his party delegates to be their Presidential Candidate. If this continues until the expected date of Nomination of Presidential Candidates, *it means H.E. Julius Maada Bio, as early as April or May this year will get to be declared the next President of Sierra Leone for another 5 years; without the need for Presidential Elections to be conducted in June.*

This is what the Law says and this is why the APC and the NGC need to swiftly put their houses in order. Otherwise, the Law says there should be no Elections for President as President Bio will be declared “duly elected” on Nomination Day this year.

The Nomination Day for President could be held as early as April this year.