OpEd: Simple Majority Presidential Elections Best for Sierra Leone

The debate around the use of the 55% percentage voting system and rurnoff have been muted in some political circles within the country focusing exclusively on the forthcoming 2028 multi-tier elections.

Many senior political commentators have questioned the continuous use of the 55% percentage-run off system which they say has always led to accusations and counter accusations of vote rigging by political parties or by the ECSL.

Should an independent sovereign nation like Sierra Leone be dependent on donor foreign countries to fund their elections every five years?

If so, why should we be frowned at the whitemen when they interfere in our internal politics and to even decide who should be our President?

Again, as if that is not enough, this is the only country where a diplomat could come out openly on a public broadcaster to condemn the government with impunity and nothing comes out of that. All in the name of party loyalty?.

It is an open secret that every runoff elections in this country since 1996 have been contentious and outrightly rejected by the loosing political parties.

The costs of contesting two elections in a single month is extraordinarily exuberant and expensive for political parties to fund. Political parties are financially broke but ironically individual members of these parties are considered “millionaires”. The question is, how did these individuals got themselves so rich while their parties are so poor? Only God Almighty knows.

That notwithstanding, the stress and sometimes violence against opponents in such a short period for those runoff elections are not encouraging.

Meanwhile, political commentators are now encouraging government to pursue the simple majority presidential system and not the runoff/ 55% for any political party to claim victory.

Will that happen in 2028? Only time will tell!

Comment(s)

Disclaimer: Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Sierraloaded or any employee thereof.

James Babin | 2024-08-18 18:40:15

Our problem is not about simple majority or runoff, the main problem is about fairness and transparency, period !
| 2024-08-18 03:15:21

Good argument for economic reasons. But based on our ethnic and regional composition, not a good argument. Precisely why the 55% threshold was introduced: to force political parties to have a national representation. Besides, a simple majority would work well in a parliamentary system, not the presidential system we currently have.
| 2024-08-17 12:30:24

Good suggestion and it will be very unique if we adopt this system the simple majority in our electionary process. But the major parties SLPP and APC will agree with the simple majority and pass on the bill in the parliament that's is the question.
| 2024-08-17 11:14:24

I always favour a simple majority, which will ease the tension, financial constraint, etc. Better still, we can opt for 51% rather than 55%, a bar too high to achieve.