Constitutional Amendment Bill 2025 and the judicialization of election processes – Op ed

Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara (JFK): Sierra Leone Telegraph: 15 February 2026:

What Section 7 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone Amendment Bill, 2025 proposes is what I term the judicialization of the election, a dangerous compression of constitutional rights into rigid procedural timelines that may ultimately weaken, rather than strengthen our democracy.

Let me be clear: elections are the heartbeat of democracy. But democracy does not end at the ballot box. It must be protected by meaningful access to justice.

The bill provides that any person dissatisfied with the declaration of the Chief Electoral Commissioner must file a petition in the Supreme Court within three days.

Three days to challenge a presidential election

In practical terms, this is not merely restrictive, it is prohibitive. A presidential election involves results from across the entire country. Evidence must be gathered from multiple districts. Affidavits must be sworn. Legal teams must analyse data, verify discrepancies, and prepare constitutional arguments.

To compress this process into seventy-two hours is to create a constitutional bottleneck that risks shutting the door on legitimate grievances. Justice must be accessible. It must not be trapped within unrealistic procedural deadlines.

Even more concerning is the provision requiring the Chief Justice to notify the Chief Electoral Commissioner if no petition is filed within those three days.

But what happens where a petition is attempted but challenged on grounds of technical non-compliance?

What happens where procedural interpretation overrides substantive justice?

We must guard against creating a system where technicalities determine the fate of a nation. A constitutional right to challenge an election must not depend on procedural perfection within an impracticable timeframe.

The bill further mandates that the Supreme Court must hear and determine a presidential election petition within fourteen days. Let us reflect soberly. A presidential petition involves:

Examination of nationwide electoral data; Scrutiny of result forms and tally sheets; Witness testimonies from multiple districts; Constitutional interpretation of electoral standards; Judicial reasoning of the highest order.

To expect the court to complete this process within fourteen days raises serious concerns about practicality and depth of review. Speed is important. Certainty is important. But justice is paramount.

Rushed adjudication risks undermining public confidence in the judiciary and, by extension, in the electoral process itself.

This is not about politics. It is about principle.

The right to challenge an election result is a constitutional safeguard. It ensures transparency. It promotes accountability. It protects the sovereignty of the people. If we make that safeguard so narrow that it becomes almost unusable, we weaken democracy.

Constitutional reform must deepen democracy, not constrict it.

I therefore call on Parliament, religious leaders, civil society, and all patriotic Sierra Leoneans to examine these provisions carefully. Let us ensure that in our desire for efficiency, we do not sacrifice fairness; and in our pursuit of speed, we do not compromise justice.

The integrity of our elections is too important to be confined within impracticable deadlines.

Democracy must not only be declared it must be defended.