The Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (EC-SL), has informed that Nomination Fee for Presidential Candidates in the 2023 elections is Thirty-Six Thousand New Leones.
Director of External Relations at Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone, Albert Massaquio, said nominated candidates must pay a nomination fee as prescribed by the Public Elections Act (PEA) 2022.
Explaining on how the Proportional Representation (PR) Electoral System works, Albert said: “PR will only be used for electing Members of Parliament and Local Councilors. For Parliamentary elections, District Block system will be used in which all 16 electoral districts serve as multi-member electoral area. For Local Council elections, the 22 Localities serve as multi-member electoral area. For both Parliamentary and Local Council elections, Party List Proportional Representation is going to be used. For Nomination of Political Party Candidates, the leadership of political parties will submit list of endorsed candidates (twice the number required) in order of preference. For Independent Candidates, nomination is done as an individual.”
Albert went on that seats will be allocated to Political Party candidates in the order of preference as they appear on the list, adding; “a Threshold of 11.9% for Parliamentary and 4.5% for Local Council election is required to win a seat. Threshold is calculated by dividing the total number seats by the number of electoral areas multiplied by 100.
“Parliamentary election 16 ÷ 135 × 100 = 11.9%; Local Council election 22 ÷ 493 × 100 = 4.5%; threshold is determined by the total number Valid Votes obtained by a political party or independent candidate”.
On the allocation of seats for PR System, the EC-SL Director of External Relations explained that seats for District Block PR system is based on current parliamentary seat allocation based on the 2016 Population and Housing Census figures and 132 Parliamentary Seats and seat allocation based on the 2021 Mid-Term population and housing census using the Highest Remainder Method and on 132 seats. Add the two seat allocations and divide by two for 135 seats.