On 3 April 2023 the Political Parties Regulation Commission (PPRC) issued a press release in which it stated that, “Street Rallies be banned in the forthcoming elections”, and that “Political Parties [should] assemble and conduct their campaigns in designated areas with appropriate security coverage.”
This ban has generated a lot of controversies with the main opposition, the All People’s Congress (APC), condemning it out rightly, arguing that the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) is afraid of APC crowds which will show that the SLPP doesn’t have the numbers to win the June 24 general elections.
But the APC is not the only organisation which has condemned the PPRC ban on street or political rallies. The Christian Lawyers Centre, referred to as LEGAL LINK, has in an “Advisory Opinion” gives “10 Reasons As To Why A Ban On Peaceful Street Rallies And Campaigns Prior To The June 2023 Elections May Be Wrong, Unjust, Illegal, Exaggerated And Misplaced.”
For one well-known activist and lawyer, Augustine Sorie-Sengbe Marrah, the PPRC ban on political street rallies is illegal, unlawful, and unconstitutional”. He argues that a “political rally is not a prohibited activity in the new Political Parties Act 2022. “The Supreme Court of Sierra Leone has ruled that fundamental rights cannot be abrogated by press release or communiqué but by an express law passed by Parliament,” he said.
In reaction to the controversies the PPRC Executive Secretary, Olushogo A. David, has reportedly said in Freetown that there is no ban on political rallies in the forthcoming general elections in June, 2023.
He clarified that a ban had been placed on street rallies across the country but noted that there would be designated places across the country where members of political parties could converge and have conversations with their leaders. He stated that those designated areas would be manned by security personnel, adding further that the government would provide Government facilities free of charge to political parties for the holding of such rallies.