Freetown, 11 August 2026 — The All Peoples Congress (APC) has strongly condemned and formally distanced itself from the purported passage of the Constitution of Sierra Leone (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which the Speaker of Parliament ruled as passed by a simple majority on 10 August 2026.
In a press release issued on 11 August and signed by National Secretary General Lansana Dumbuya, Esq., the party described the Speaker’s ruling as inconsistent with Section 108(2)(b) of the 1991 Constitution, Standing Order 44(3), and the Speaker’s own earlier position on the voting threshold required for constitutional amendments.
Section 108(2)(b) states that a Bill seeking to alter the Constitution shall not be passed unless it is supported, at both its Second and Third Readings, by the votes of not less than two-thirds of all Members of Parliament. With 149 Members, the APC noted that at least 100 affirmative votes were required.
The party argued that the Speaker had previously recognised the applicability of the two-thirds requirement. His subsequent reversal and decision to allow the Bill to pass by a simple majority, the APC said, created a serious constitutional and procedural inconsistency.
A mandatory constitutional safeguard, the release stated, cannot be displaced by a ruling from the Chair, particularly when the Speaker himself acknowledges that the ruling remains subject to interpretation by the Supreme Court.
The APC further maintained that the two-thirds requirement applies to every substantive decision affecting the constitutional text, including the Committee Stage, where Parliament inserts, deletes, substitutes and amends provisions that ultimately form part of the Constitution. Allowing such clauses to be adopted by a simple majority would, in the party’s view, permit constitutional changes that never independently secured the required level of support.
Section 171 of the Constitution declares it the supreme law of Sierra Leone. Neither ordinary parliamentary procedure nor a ruling of the Speaker can override or reduce an express constitutional voting threshold, the APC stressed.
Faced with a ruling that departed from Section 108 and the Speaker’s earlier position, APC Members of Parliament withdrew from the proceedings rather than lend legitimacy to the process.
The party stated that it neither authorised nor participated in the purported passage of the Bill by only 96 Members.
The APC has called on the Government and Parliament to ensure strict compliance with the Constitution, insisting that no constitutional amendment should be treated as valid where the prescribed voting threshold remains unresolved and subject to interpretation by the Supreme Court.
“No Government, political party, Speaker or Parliament stands above the Constitution,” the statement concluded.
