PR Defeats Essence Of Democracy
Decentralisation in Sierra Leone was supposed to bring power back to the people. It was meant to correct decades of centralised control that left communities voiceless, disconnected, and frustrated. In 2004, Parliament enacted the Local Government Act, a bold law that restored local councils and made them “the highest political authority in the locality.” It was a law designed to put citizens in charge of their own development, to make governance personal, visible, and accountable. Every ward had its own councillor, directly elected by the people. Communities could now demand answers, monitor development, and hold leaders accountable. Local governance was no longer a distant concept, it was real, effective, and participatory.
Under the ward-based system, councillors lived among the people. They understood the day-to-day struggles of their constituents. Roads were repaired, schools were built, health centres maintained, and sanitation projects delivered, because councillors were directly responsible to the voters in their wards. Ward Committees allowed citizens to take part in planning and monitoring local projects, making decentralisation a shared responsibility rather than a hollow slogan. Governance was not about party lists or political games; it was about solving real problems that affected real people.
Then came 2023 and the disastrous introduction of Proportional Representation (PR) to local councils. This system has ripped apart the very fabric of local democracy in Sierra Leone. Under PR, councillors are no longer chosen by the communities they serve. Political parties submit lists, and seats are allocated based on votes for the party, not the needs of the ward. The link between voter and representative has been severed. Communities are left with councillors who answer to party bosses, not the people. Entire wards now have no councilor, while others have two or more. Citizens are silenced, development delayed, and accountability erased.
PR has turned local government into a playground for party elites. Councillors are more loyal to their parties than to their constituents. They prioritise political calculations over community needs, betraying the very people who are meant to benefit from local governance. What was designed to empower citizens now centralises power in party hierarchies. The very principles of the 2004 Local Government Act: equal representation, accountability, and community participation have been trampled.
Ward Committees, once the heartbeat of citizen engagement, are now weakened and ineffective. With no identifiable ward councillor, trust declines, participation dwindles, and local governance becomes distant, bureaucratic, and hollow. Citizens feel abandoned. Communities are ignored. Local democracy is under siege.
While PR may make sense in national elections, it is a disaster for local government. Local councils are not laboratories for party arithmetic. They are meant to respond to streets, schools, health posts, and markets. They require leaders who are directly accountable to the people they serve. PR delivers the opposite: detachment, confusion, and betrayal.
If Sierra Leone is serious about genuine decentralisation, restoring direct ward elections is not optional, it is urgent. Every ward deserves a councillor. Every community deserves a voice. Every citizen deserves leaders who answer to them, not to party hierarchies. PR, as currently implemented, does not strengthen democracy; it destroys it. It silences citizens, abandons wards, and turns local governance into a tool of political elites. To save decentralisation, power must return where it belongs at the ward level, in the hands of the people.
