ELECTION OF THE SPEAKER: A PRACTITIONER GUIDE!

By: MLD Rogers

It makes us pensive nowadays to see several experts on Parliament. Disturbingly, they do not listen nor do they ask for professional advice from the practitioners in the space. 

Is it that we need to change our approach as practitioners? Is it that we need to recalibrate parliamentary management and administration? 

This is a topic worth looking into some other time.

In any case, to guide the discussion relating to the agenda of the House for Thursday 2 May 2024 ie Election of the Speaker.

*Section 159* of the Constitution has no energy in the unfolding *internal parliamentary politics.* I wonder why *Section 159* of the Constitution has become so relevant and trending on this issue. If any, it would have been considered maybe after the election of the Speaker because of our current electoral system. 

The closest example in practice and procedure in respect of the election of the House Speaker was the election of Rt Hon. Speaker S.B.B. Dumbuya in 2013. He was a sitting Member of Parliament and Leader of Government Business before his election to the chair as Speaker. The thinking of Members of Parliament at that time was to allow one of its kind to become Speaker of Parliament but not for the member(s) designate to resign to become Speaker of the House. 

This was manifested in the spirit of the debate leading to the amendment of *subsection 1 of Section 79* of the Constitution. 

On the prism of best parliamentary practice, the greatest democracies (UK & USA) had had *internal parliamentary politics* at their best in recent times by the change of their House speakers or premiers.

In the US for example, it was so polarised in Congress after Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted and replaced by Speaker Mike Johnson. Since then, the Capitol has never been the same. 

In all of these cases, resignation before the ascension to the speakership was never an instrument. In tandem with similar practice, the spirit of the law relating to the amendment of *subsection 1 of Section 79* of the Constitution was to allow a sitting Member of Parliament to be elected Speaker of the House. 

What is clear and should be stated loudly is that *Internal parliamentary politics* is for the Members of Parliament. In the case of the election of the speaker, the exercise is conducted by the Clerk who is assisted by senior officers of the House. 

The procedure is clear and has been tested since 1996 and further retested in 2013 when the constitutional amendment was made to allow Parliament to elect its own. 

Invariably, the focus of the office of the Clerk relating to the Order Paper for Thursday 2 May 2024 proceedings is to conduct the election of the Speaker of Parliament after a vacancy has occurred and the legal and procedural anchor is primarily focussed on *Section 79* of the Constitution of Sierra Leone as amended and the House Rule - *SO 8*.

Hope this helps to redirect the discussions!