Eight lessons Tanzania can learn from 2023 Sierra Leone elections

These lessons are not meant to imply that the elections in Sierra Leone are free from challenges. Rather, these are observations of the law and practice in one country that could be applied to another country and thus contribute to changes in the electoral and political system towards strengthening the delivery of free, fair, and credible elections. The noted lessons are also pivotal as Tanzania is geared to undertake local elections in 2024, and the general elections in 2025.

The first lesson is with regard to the fact that the Republic of Sierra Leone does not tie electoral candidature to political parties. Citizens with political ambition but without affiliation to specific political party ideologies can still run for election as independent candidates.

In Tanzania, however, anyone desiring to contest for an electoral position has to be a member of and has to obtain an endorsement from a political party in line with Article 39 (2) 67 (2) (e) of the 1977 Constitution. This has continued to be the case despite the 2013 decision of the African Court on Human and People’s Rights in the case of Mtikila v. Tanzania which ordered Tanzania to take efforts to allow independent candidates.

The second lesson is that in Sierra Leone a presidential candidate is declared a winner after receiving an absolute majority of votes cast to the tune of at least 55 per cent otherwise a run-off between the top two candidates must happen in 14 days.

This is different from Tanzania, where a presidential candidate with just more votes than the other candidates is elected as per section 81 of the National Elections Act, 1985. The rule in Tanzania has the potential of allowing an individual to win the presidential elections without receiving the absolute majority of votes cast and may bring concerns about the broader acceptance of the election results, support for the winning candidate, legitimacy, and representativeness.

In the third lesson, it is possible for presidential results in Sierra Leone to be contested in the courts of law by any aggrieved party. In Tanzania, this is unfortunately impossible. Article 41(7) of the 1977 Constitution bars courts from inquiring into the election of a presidential candidate after the Electoral Commission has declared a winner.

This prohibition curtails the right of the people of Tanzania to access justice as affirmed by the decision of the African Court of Human and Peoples Rights in 2018 in the case of Jebra Kambole vs Tanzania.

The fourth lesson is related to the fact that, in 2022, Sierra Leone moved from First Past the Post (FPTP) electoral system to the Proportional Representation (PR) electoral system for parliamentary and councillors elections. This is a commendable move as research has consistently shown that women and other marginalized groups are four times more likely to be elected in the PR electoral system compared FPTP electoral system.

The PR system in Sierra Leone is embedded with the 30 per cent gender quota. Political parties’ candidate lists for members of parliament and councillors must include 30 per cent of women candidates otherwise the list is rejected.

While placing women candidate on the party list needs to be worked on, and the 30 per cent need to be extended to the election of mayor, chairpersons and paramount chiefs, the newly adopted PR system is expected to increase the number of women in parliament and in councils in Sierra Leone.

Tanzania predominantly applies the FPTP electoral system, with 40 percent reserved seats for women. The served seats are distributed through the PR electoral system to the political parties with 5 per cent of the parliamentary votes as per articles 66, 78, and 81 of the 1977 Constitution.

While the number of women winning constituencies through the FPTP electoral system has increased from 8 during the first multiparty elections in 1995 to 26 after the 2020 general election, the number is still below 10 per cent. While women make up 37 per cent of all parliamentarians, only 9.8 per cent (26 women) are elected directly from constituencies, and the majority (113 women) accessed the parliament through the reserved seats system.

The reserved seats system is tainted with a number of challenges including the absence of a uniform procedure for the nomination of women for reserved seats by the political parties which has led to conflicts such as the ongoing court case Halima James Mdee & 18 Others v. The Board of Trustees, Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA).

The reserved seats system is also challenged by a lack of electability status, accountability absurdity, apparent discrimination and marginalization, and the absence of term limits.

In the fifth lesson, it is noted that a mix of FPTP and PR electoral systems as employed in Sierra Leone still requires all candidates to be voted for, contrary to Tanzania where candidates can pass without objection in the case where there is only one candidate vying for a seat. Under such circumstances, such a candidate is deemed to have run and won unopposed. During the 2020 general election in Tanzania, parliamentary elections did not occur in 28 out of 264 constituencies as 28 candidates from the ruling party had passed without objection. This practice increases candidates’ and political parties’ temptation to employ means to eliminate competition including through corruption, manipulation, or leveraging legal and procedural technicalities. It also denies citizens their right to elect their leader.

The sixth lesson is that overall, the mannerism of conducting elections in Sierra Leone appears to also inspire high voter turnout. 83 per cent of the registered voters voted. Voter apathy is a growing trend in Tanzania, with about 50 per cent of the registered voters reported to have boycotted the 2020 general elections polls.

The seventh lesson is based on the fact that in Sierra Leone, the members of the national election commission are appointed by the President through a consultative process and their appointment is subject to the approval of Parliament.

This is different from Tanzania, where the appointment of the chairperson and the commission are not endorsed by the parliament as per Article 74 of the 1977 Constitution.

Finally, the eighth lesson is the extent to which there is a good degree of separation of powers between the parliament and the cabinet.

Elected members of parliament are not then appointed to become ministers, i.e. to be part of the cabinet.

Ministers are appointed from outside the parliament, through a separate process. In this way, MPs are freer to hold cabinet ministers, the executive, and the government overall to account.

In Tanzania, on the other hand, you cannot be a cabinet minister without becoming a Member of Parliament first- creating a blurring of the separation of powers and creating an incentive for those who want to enter the cabinet to pander to the executive.

The envisaged appetite for electoral and political legal reforms in Tanzania should borrow a leaf from these lessons from Sierra Leone. The reforms should allow independent candidates and the challenging of presidential candidates before a court of law.

The reforms should also introduce a 50+ 1 rule for electoral winners, replace FPTP electoral system with the PR electoral system and address the challenges facing the reserved seats system.

Further, the reform should also ensure a clear separation of power between arms of the state, as well as ensure rigour in the nomination of the election commission’s chairperson and commissioners.

Victoria Melkisedeck Lihiru is a Lecturer of Law at the Open University of Tanzania, currently undertaking her postdoctoral studies at the University of Pretoria. Reach her via [email protected]