Sierra Leone News: 2 term limit for Presidential preferable-Afro Barometer Survey

A demographic survey conducted by Afro Barometer has shown that 87% of the Sierra Leonean population is in support of the presidential two term limit.
Speaking at the Round 6 Afro Barometer First Dissemination Session at the Civil Service College, the Country Director, Search for Common Ground/ Talking Drum Studio, Joseph Jimmy Sankaituah, in his capacity as chair of the session, said in his opening remarks that the goal of the survey was to give the public a voice in policy making by providing high quality public opinion data to policy makers, policy advocates, civil society organisations, academics, news media, donors, investors and ordinary Africans.
Whilst he was going through the research methodology, Umaru Katta, representative from ITASCAP said the research which was done by ITASCAP, Campaign for Good Governance (CGG) and Lena Thompson seeks to get Sierra Leoneans perception on democracy.



The research which, according to him, is the second as there was a previous Afro Barometer survey conducted in the country in 2012, was conducted using random sampling as one thousand two hundred people from all over the country served as the respondents.
He stated that this present report covers the following: term limits for presidency, preference for democracy, that is, those in support of democratic governance, roles in democracy which has to do with accountability and perception on the country’s democracy which had to do with whether people are satisfied with their democracy.


Comparing the two surveys, Ibrahim Sesay, Program officer CGG said the research findings for presidential term limit shows that there is an increment in the percentage of those in favour of two term limit from 81% in 2012 to 87% in 2015. Furthermore, the research shows that as oppose to 2012 in which 17% oppose term limits for presidency 6% has at this time opposed any term limit for presidency.
Regarding preference for democracy, the report shows that 59% of the population support democracy. In addition, 64% as opposed to the 54% in 2012 prefer a multi-party system in the country which means there should be as many political parties as possible in the country.
Regarding role in democracy, which has to do with accountability, 55% of Sierra Leoneans say that it is more important for the government to be accountable than to get things done quickly, 6 in 10 say the president must obey the country’s laws and courts, 78% says that parliament should ensure that the president explain to it on a regular basis how the government spend tax payers money, 54% says the opposition should cooperate with the government while 41% says the opposition should monitor the government and hold it accountable.


Finally, in the area of the country’s democracy which has to do with peoples satisfaction, only 29% as opposed to the 61% in 2012 that is fairly/very satisfied with its democracy.
Responding to the research findings, the Deputy Minister of Presidential and Political Affairs, Karamoh Kabba applauded the work of Afro Barometer, regarding it as a great work. He asked whether the idea of term limit interfere with the principle of democracy being that he was with the perception that if a leader is bad, one term was enough to get him out of power. He called on all to be open minded in looking at democracy itself.