Dr. Sylvia Blyden Criticizes PR System, Says It Created Parliamentary Representation Vacuum
Senior politician and journalist Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden has joined the growing debate over Sierra Leone’s Proportional Representation (PR) electoral system, describing its use in the 2023 General Elections as “a wicked system” that, in her view, left communities from Wellington to Central Freetown without direct parliamentary representation.
Dr. Blyden’s comments come amid ongoing deliberations in Parliament on the Constitutional Amendment Bill, where Members of Parliament from the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) have strongly opposed proposals to permanently entrench the PR system in the Constitution.
Speaking in a recent interview, APC National Chairman Osman Foday Yansaneh argued that both the Proportional Representation (PR) system and the First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system are already provided for under Section 38 of the Constitution and should remain available depending on the country’s prevailing circumstances.
“As far as the APC is concerned, both the PR system and the First-Past-the-Post system are embedded in Section 38 of the Constitution,” Yansaneh said. “They should be applied based on the country’s immediate circumstances. If nothing is broken, leave it intact.”
However, Attorney General and Minister of Justice Alpha Sesay rejected the APC’s position, claiming that during consultations on the Constitutional Amendment Bill, the party had agreed to the Government’s proposal to adopt the PR system.
According to the Attorney General, the APC is now taking a contradictory position for political reasons. He said he possesses correspondence indicating that the opposition party had consented to the use of the PR system but has chosen not to make the documents public.
The differing positions have intensified the national debate over the future of Sierra Leone’s electoral system, with supporters arguing that the PR system promotes broader political inclusion, while critics contend that it weakens direct constituency representation and accountability between elected representatives and the communities they serve.
