Proportional Representation in Sierra Leone 2023
The Supreme Court of Sierra Leone has ruled that the 2023 Elections will be conducted using the District Block Representation System — Proportional Representation System.
The number of seats a party gets in Parliament will be determined by how well it does on a District by District Level.
This article explains what Proportional Representation is, the number of available seats and how to work out the threshold for having your party represented.
Please note that I will be updating and correcting this article often.
What is Proportional Representation
Proportional representation is the idea that the seats in parliament should be in proportion to the votes cast.
This is different from the First Past the Post (Winner Takes all system) which is the current voting system in Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone Regions
Eastern Region
The region is divided into 3 districts (constituencies in brackets) : Kailahun (10), Kenema (11), and Kono (9) districts. For the purpose of electing members of parliament and Councilors to the Eastern region, the region is divided into 30 constituencies and 99 wards respectively. (Source — Electoral Commission)
Northern Region
The region is divided into 4 districts (constituencies in brackets): Bombali (8), Falaba (4), Koinadugu (4), Tonkolili (10) districts. For the purpose of electing members of parliament and Councilors to the Northern region, the region is divided into 26 constituencies and 89 wards respectively. (Source — Electoral Commission)
North Western Region
The region is divided into 3 districts (constituencies in brackets) : Kambia (6), Karene (5), Port Loko (10) districts. For the purpose of electing members of parliament and Councilors to the North Western region, the region is divided into 21 constituencies and 75 wards respectively. (Source — Electoral Commission)
Southern Region
The region is divided into 4 districts (constituencies in brackets): Bo (11), Bonthe (4), Pujehhun (6), Moyamba(6) districts. For the purpose of electing members of parliament and Councilors to the North Southern region, the region is divided into 27 constituencies and 108 wards respectively. (Source — Electoral Commission)
Western Urban
The region is divided into constituencies and wards. For the purpose of electing members of parliament and Councilors to the Western Urban District, the region is divided into 20 constituencies and 48 wards respectively. (Source — Electoral Commission)
Western Rural
The region is divided into various constituencies, wards, and villages. For the purpose of electing members of parliament and Councilors to the Western Rural district, the region is divided into 8 constituencies and 27 wards respectively. (Source — Electoral Commission)
How to work out seats on a District Block Voting System
We will use Port Loko as an example to show this (my new found favorite region :) )
Number of parties competing in this district, say 5 : (A, B, C, D, E)
Number of seats available — 10 because they have 10 constituencies
Number of voters: 233, 962
The table below shows the votes of the parties and their respective percentages. If you struggle with working out percentages, this book could help.
Threshold Percentage
The threshold percentage will vary from district to district based on the number of constituencies.
To work out the threshold percentage = 100/(number of constituencies)
In this case the number of constituencies is 10, so the threshold percentage will be 100/10 = 10%
If the constituency number was 6, the threshold will be 100/6 =16.66%
Which parties will have representatives?
All those with percentage votes greater than the threshold. In this case, all the parties have votes more than 10%, so they all will have representatives.
How many seats?
First multiply the percentage by the total number of constituencies:
- Party A: 11.75% x 10 = 1.175
- Party B: 14.29% x 10 = 1.429
- Party C: 16.89% x 10 = 1.689
- Party D: 25.19% x 10 = 2.589
- Party E: 31.87% x 10 = 3.187
Ignore everything after the decimal point, so in the first instance:
- A — 1 seat
- B — 1 seat
- C — 1 seat
- D — 2 seats
- E — 3 seats
Total : 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 3 = 8 seats, 2 seats remaining
Any number of remaining seats will be allocated to the parties in the following manner:
The party with the highest decimal fraction (C with .689) gets the 1st of the remaining seats.
The party with the next highest fraction (D with .589) gets the 2nd of the remaining seats.
(This continues until all the seats have been allocated).
PS: It gets even more complicated if — unlike this example — some parties do not meet the threshold.
They are then eliminated and the remaining parties will share the seats using ratio and proportion.
Wilfred Wright is fond of learning and Freetown. The Catch-Up Maths may help you with ratio and proportion.
References:
- Electoral Commission
- The Public Elections Act, 2022 has a slightly more complicated example calculation.
