The 30% gender quota law in Sierra Leone : a game changer for women's access to parliament?

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Authors

Lihiru, Victoria Melkisedeck

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Brill Academic Publishers

Abstract

The June 2023 elections in Sierra Leone occurred against the backdrop of amendments to the Public Elections Act (pea), the enactment of the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act (gewe), and a switch from the First Past the Post (fptp) electoral system to the Proportional Representation (pr) electoral system. For the first time in Sierra Leone’s history, law reforms, among other things, introduced a 30% gender quota rule for parliamentary and councillorship seats. After the 2023 elections, women won 41 out of the 135 elected parliamentary seats, increasing the percentage of women parliamentarians from 12.32% in the 2018 elections to 30.37%. Despite the increase, there have been concerns about the overall effectiveness of the gender quota rule in facilitating women’s access to parliamentary seats. The gender quota rule is set below 50%, is not accompanied by the candidates’ ranking order, does not apply in the election of 14 paramount chiefs, and operates within poor data desegregation of the candidates. This article highlights the required reforms to address the identified legal challenges to facilitate women’s equal access to representation in Sierra Leone’s Parliament.

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Keywords

Sierra Leone, Parliament, SDG-16: Peace, justice and strong institutions, SDG-05: Gender equality, Gender quotas, Women’s access to parliament, Women’s political participation, Elections, Women’s and elections, Electoral systems

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG-05:Gender equality
SDG-16:Peace,justice and strong institutions

Citation

Lihiru, V. M. (2024). The 30% Gender Quota Law in Sierra Leone: A Game Changer for Women’s Access to Parliament?. African Journal of Legal Studies, 16(3), 271-290. https://doi.org/10.1163/17087384-12340109.