FREETOWN, April 10 (IPS) – As Sierra Leone prepares for its subsequent nationwide election in 2028, political events throughout the nation have begun setting methods and making ready to pick out their candidates. Nonetheless, individuals with disabilities say they continue to be poorly represented and are calling on political events to appoint them as candidates forward of the election.
Samuel Alpha Sesay, an individual with a bodily incapacity dwelling in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, is amongst these advocating for change. He nonetheless remembers the final normal election, held in 2023, and the way there was no particular person with a incapacity vying for any place in authorities.
In 2025, he based the All Political Occasion Incapacity Affiliation to problem the long-standing exclusion of individuals with disabilities from governance. Sesay says the dearth of illustration of individuals with disabilities in nationwide elections pushed him to determine the group.
In keeping with Sierra Leone’s 2015 Inhabitants and Housing Census, about 93,129 individuals within the nation have a incapacity, representing roughly 1.3% of the full inhabitants. The 2018Built-in Family Survey reported a better determine of 310,973 individuals with disabilities, accounting for 4.3% of the inhabitants.
“For many years, individuals with disabilities have actively participated in elections as voters, hardly ever as candidates, regardless of forming a big a part of Sierra Leone’s inhabitants,” says Sesay, who believes that participation in political events’ actions alone is now not sufficient.
“We don’t need to stay within the occasion wings. We would like individuals with disabilities to be a part of the core management of political events,” he provides.
Breaking Deep-Rooted Perceptions
Sesay and others argue that stigmatisation and deep-rooted societal perceptions are among the many obstacles affecting their participation in politics.
Sylvanus Bundu, a person with a bodily incapacity in his fifties, agrees with Sesay. He instructed IPS that one of the crucial persistent obstacles to political inclusion is the notion that individuals with disabilities are incapable of efficient management.
“Individuals really feel sorry for us, however we are not looking for sympathy. Incapacity doesn’t imply incapacity. We would like society to unlearn these perceptions and permit us to steer,” says Bundu.
He provides that such perceptions are deeply embedded in social and political establishments and sometimes translate into exclusion from candidate choice processes and management appointments.
Sesay says related perceptions as soon as formed attitudes towards girls earlier than the introduction of the 30 p.c quota forward of the 2023 normal elections. He argues that such views have been used to justify excluding girls from management positions.
Nonetheless, he notes that the introduction of the Gender Equality and Girls’s Empowerment (GEWE) Act 2022, which mandates a 30 p.c quota for girls’s political illustration, marked a turning level.
The UN Girls Transparency report signifies that following the introduction of the 30% quota below the GEWE Act 2022, girls’s illustration in Sierra Leone’s Parliament roughly doubled from 14.5% to round 28–30.45%, with notable will increase additionally recorded in native councils and cupboard positions.
“In the present day, girls are main throughout sectors and contributing meaningfully to nationwide improvement. The identical transformation can occur if individuals with disabilities are given area,” Sesay says, including that he believes the 2028 elections current an important alternative to shift this dynamic and make sure that affirmative political motion is prolonged to individuals with disabilities.
Electoral Quota
Regardless of worldwide human rights treaties, together with the UN Conference on the Rights of Individuals with Disabilities, political illustration for individuals with disabilities in Sierra Leone stays weak.
Incapacity rights advocates say the illustration of individuals with disabilities in Sierra Leone doesn’t even attain one p.c a regarding determine in a rustic the place the eleven-year civil battle considerably elevated the inhabitants of individuals dwelling with disabilities.
The Worldwide Basis for Election Methods reported that, because of the civil battle and subsequent battle, greater than 3,000 individuals in Sierra Leone had limbs amputated and lots of others suffered extreme battle wounds. The 2015 Inhabitants and Housing Census identifies causes resembling sickness, congenital circumstances, accidents and battle accidents as contributing to incapacity prevalence.
Sesay says the answer lies in a legally backed electoral quota system that ensures illustration at each nationwide and native ranges.
“We’re not asking for short-term appointments. We’re asking for long-term, significant illustration throughout all areas of the nation,” he says.
Bundu believes that inclusion in governance is about policymaking that displays lived realities. He needs a 5 p.c quota to be clearly enshrined in Sierra Leone’s structure and the 2011 Individuals with Incapacity Act, each of that are at the moment below evaluation.
“They are saying who feels it is aware of it, so if individuals with disabilities are a part of governance buildings, our wants shall be higher understood and prioritised,” Bundu says.
Whereas advocates push for enforceable quotas, impartial regulatory our bodies overseeing political events cite legislative constraints. Eugene Momoh, Senior Outreach Officer of the Political Events Regulation Fee (PPRC), an impartial regulatory physique of political events, says the fee promotes inclusion however can’t mandate quotas.
“Part 43 of the Political Events Regulation Fee Act of 2022 requires political events to endeavour to make sufficient provisions for individuals with disabilities in government positions from ward to nationwide degree,” states Momoh.
In keeping with him, the fee displays compliance with this provision by partaking political events to make sure individuals with disabilities are included inside their buildings. Nonetheless, Momoh notes that in engagements, occasion leaders typically disclose that individuals with disabilities don’t actively take part in occasion actions.
Ibrahim Dumbuya, Performing Secretary Normal of the Sierra Leone Union on Incapacity Points (SLUDI), a incapacity rights group, acknowledges that curiosity ranges might fluctuate however insists that the willingness to take part exists.
“It’s true that some individuals with disabilities might not present robust curiosity in politics, however there are various who do but aren’t given the platforms to carry management positions inside political events,” says Dumbuya.
He argues that when individuals with disabilities interact politically, they’re typically handled as charity circumstances, which topics them to discrimination.
“In some cases, political events showcase individuals with disabilities throughout political events’ occasions, however they don’t give them significant platforms to contest for parliamentary or native council seats.”
Studying from Uganda
As Sierra Leonean incapacity rights advocates name for a incapacity quota system, Uganda gives a working mannequin on the African continent.
Lilian Namukasa, Programme Supervisor of the Nationwide Council for Individuals with Disabilities, below the Secretariat for Particular Curiosity Teams, instructed IPS that Uganda’s quota system, launched years in the past as an affirmative motion measure, has led to the illustration of individuals with disabilities in Parliament and native councils.
“We now have 5 reserved seats for individuals with disabilities in Parliament; one in all these seats is particularly reserved for a lady with a incapacity. Actually, on this current election, we’ve got two parliamentarians who’re girls with disabilities,” says Namukasa.
She explains that this illustration additionally extends to native authorities buildings nationwide and has created area for individuals with disabilities to affect coverage, budgets and nationwide improvement.
Namukasa provides that the structured inclusion has translated into tangible outcomes, together with the allocation of devoted funding for the financial empowerment of individuals with disabilities, the supply of annual college scholarships, and the introduction of extreme incapacity grants for kids with disabilities, amongst different initiatives.
Crossroads
Because the 2028 elections strategy, advocates consider Sierra Leone stands at a crossroads. They are saying the query is now not whether or not individuals with disabilities can lead, however whether or not the political system is keen to create area for them to take action.
Whether or not the nation responds to this name, they argue, might properly outline the depth of its democratic dedication within the years forward.
“We now have voted for others for many years,” Sesay displays. “Now, we’re asking to be voted for.”
IPS UN Bureau Report
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