AYV News, June 2, 2025
Prominent female politician, Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden, has backed the creation of Bandajuma and Kpangoma districts.
She carefully explained the difference between Presidential executive powers to create localities and districts for the administration of the Government as against the constitutional powers of the Electoral Commission (EC-SL) to create electoral boundaries for the conduct of elections to elect Members of Parliament and Local Councillors.
Dr. Sylvia Blyden explained that in terms of delineation of the country into administrative districts and local councils, it was a different process from the one involved for the delineation of the country into Constituencies for the election of Members of Parliament and into Wards for election of Local Councillors.
“These are two processes which are done by totally different legal routes,” Blyden said.
Blyden affirmed that to create administrative districts, a sitting President uses his powers under Section 4(1) of the Provinces Act {CAP60}, which does not require him to wait for any Census data.
“The President is not forced or even mandated to use Census data as a basis for the creation of administrative districts,” Dr. Sylvia lectured.
“This is because creating districts is not only by the numerical population size but actually, it is mainly done according to social, cultural and economic factors as the President sees fit,” Sylvia Blyden explained.
“According to the Law, a sitting President only has to listen to what his Cabinet advises him on when it comes to creating new Districts and Localities. That’s all. Nothing else,” Dr. Blyden explained.
Continuing, she said such Cabinet Advice will lead to the President eventually making a Proclamation for the creation of the new Districts and new Localities like Cities.
She furthered that such a presidential proclamation is then sent to Parliament for ratification, where it will require two-thirds or more MPs to vote to overturn it.
In sharp contrast, she outlined the process for what she explained were “electoral divisions by the EC-SL into wards and constituencies”.
For such electoral divisions, she explained that this is done through a constitutional process that is well outlined under Section 38 of the 1991 Constitution.
She said it is for such electoral divisions under Section 38 that a National Census data is normally needed. She carefully explained that under normal circumstances, Census data is required to do boundary delimitations for elections into constituencies and wards.
The Government of Sierra Leone recently announced a significant reconfiguration of its local governance structure, including the creation of new districts and cities, as part of a broader effort to decentralise administration and improve public service delivery.
Minister of Local Government and Community Affairs, Tamba Lamina, stated that the Cabinet had approved the restructuring proposal on April 2, giving the ministry the green light to initiate a series of activities that will lead to the establishment of new localities.
Two new districts, Bandajuma and Kpanguma, are set to be created. Bandajuma will include areas currently under the Bo and Pujehun districts, while Kpanguma will cover parts of the Kenema and Kailahun districts.
