The Political Parties Regulation Commission (PPRC) could start the deregistering of smaller political parties if they fail to win offices in two consecutive elections.

This is according to Recommendation 70 of the Tripartite Committee Report which indicates that smaller parties should not be allowed to contest in elections if they fail to win offices in two consecutive elections.

The recommendation gives the Political Parties Regulation Commission (PPRC) the mandate to deregister political parties that fail to win seats in parliament, district chairmanship, mayoral or councillorship in two consecutive elections.

This decision when or if implemented could likely see Sierra Leone becoming a two-party state with the ruling party and the main opposition contesting in subsequent elections. Political commentators are predicting this based on recent results in the 2023 elections which saw only two parties, the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC) winning all seats in parliament and other elections across the country.

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Sierra Leone is currently a multi-party state as enshrined in the country’s 1991 constitution but smaller parties have struggled to win elections in the West African state in recent times. As recent as 2023, over 10 political parties contested but only two were successful in winning seats in parliament and other elections across the country.

In 2018, two smaller parties including the National Grand Coalition (NGC) and Coalition for Change (C4C) won seats in parliamentary and local council elections. However, this could be difficult in forthcoming election giving that the two parties are now in the doldrums as evident in their poor performance in the 2023 elections.

Critics of this recommendation have pointed out that multi-party system encourages representation, plurality of views and most importantly promotes democracy. However, some members of the public have welcomed the recommendation stating that it will allow for less expenses in elections, ease voter confusion and help quell down regionalism (as in the case of C4C in 2018 which got many of its parliamentary representatives from Kono District).

Sierra Leone will host its next elections likely in 2028, five years from the 2023 elections which saw President Julius Maada Bio re-elected for a second term despite criticism of fraud by international observers like the European Union. Bio is currently serving his final term with experts predicting that the next elections will be highly competitive between the SLPP and the APC.