Electoral system for national legislature

1996 Constitution Reinstatement (Consequential Provisions) Act, Section 5, validating 1995 Electoral Provisions Decree 16 Post Conflict Governance in Sierra Leone, Abubakar Hassan Kargbo

See also The Carter Center EOM Report on 2002 Elections

"After a decade of war and massive population dislocations, Sierra Leone lacked reliable census data to determine constituencies of equal numbers of inhabitants, as required by the single-seat constituency system for parliamentary elections mandated in the 1991 constitution. During the 1996 elections a national list proportional representation system had been adopted, but it was unpopular because members of Parliament had no clear constituencies to whom they were accountable. Sierra Leone therefore adopted a provisional arrangement for the May 2002 elections, called the district block system. Each of 14 districts was considered a constituency with a block of eight parliamentary seats, for a total of 112 members of Parliament. Parties submitted prioritized lists, and voters cast ballots for parties rather than candidates. Seats were allocated in proportion to the number of votes for each party in that district. Parties were required to reach a threshold of 12.5 percent of the vote in order to win a single parliamentary seat, making it difficult for small opposition parties to secure any seats. Twelve seats in the 124-member legislature were reserved for paramount chiefs, who were to be chosen at a later date."