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Prominent political figure and activist, Sylvia Olayinka Blyden, has called on the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Alpha Sesay, to make the updated version of the Constitutional Amendment Bill currently before Parliament public.
In a post shared on her official Facebook page, Blyden stated that after closely following parliamentary debates, she observed that certain clauses in the Bill had been modified or removed. However, she noted that she did not see any changes made to what she described as an “impugned clause.”
“I have watched the debates and saw where the languages were changed and/or expunged for other clauses. I did not see this impugned clause being edited at all, at all, Sir,” she wrote.
Blyden further challenged the Attorney General to demonstrate transparency by uploading the alleged revised Bill on the government’s constitutional website.
“So do your duty and upload the alleged updated Bill onto your official website of www.myconstitution.gov.sl if you know it is true. Simple. Show us the amended Bill,” she added.
Responding in the comment section of Blyden’s post, Attorney General Alpha Sesay clarified that the updated Bill presented in Parliament reflects a presidential election threshold of “50% plus one.”
He explained that following discussions with the opposition All People’s Congress (APC), it was agreed that the government would adopt the tripartite committee’s recommendation of “50% plus one,” which he said aligns with the APC’s earlier position.
“The updated Bill in Parliament reads as 50+1. After meetings with the APC, we were asked to stick with the tripartite recommendation of 50+1. The same was their recommendation to the Cowan CRC. We agreed and tabled that before Parliament,” Sesay stated.
He further noted that the parliamentary vote would be conducted based on what he described as the APC’s original proposal.
“Today’s vote will be on the original APC proposal of 50+1 which government agrees with,” he added.
The exchange comes amid ongoing public and political scrutiny over proposed constitutional amendments, particularly the provision relating to the threshold required for a presidential election victory.
