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Popular human rights activist, Augustine Sorie-Sengbe Marah has described Political Parties Regulation Commission(PPRC) ban on Political rally as unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional.
Below is his opinion about the PPRC ban on Political Street rallies.
“The PPRC’s recent ban of political rallies is as illegal, unlawful, and unconstitutional as the Police’s ban of vehicular movement in 2018. Political rally is not a prohibited activity in the new Political Parties Act 2022. The Supreme Court of Sierra Leone has ruled that fundamental rights cannot be abrogated by press releases or communiqués but by an express law passed by Parliament.
(It is this same Supreme Court that has upheld the District Proportional Representation system for the forthcoming elections). It’s lazy leadership to always slam a ban on our problems rather than attempting to confront or solve them. Our leaders have worsened our problems by this age-old habit. You may not like political rallies (the same for me), but you have to respect the right of citizens to exercise their rights and to freely participate in the electoral processes. Is there a need for proper organisation of these rallies and increased security measures. Certainly! The PPRC and the security sector should instead work with political parties to introduce measures to improve the decorum of political rallies and curtail disorderliness. The answer to lawlessness in political rallies is not ban. If you think it is, wait until you see how supporters converge to the designated centres? They would not suddenly become law-abiding while commuting to these grounds. Lawlessness in political rallies is not addressed by a ban.
This is because if you ban lawlessness in political rallies without addressing lawlessness in general in electoral activities, political parties will simply take the lawlessness to the next available electoral activity. This is what happens when you don’t address a problem. It may be dislodged but not extinguished!”
