Parliament Overview

The Sierra Leone Parliament, like its counterparts in other former British colonies, began as a Legislative Council. It was inaugurated in 1863, but was re-named as the House of Representatives in 1954. The first decade of independence (1961-70), often referred to as the “golden age,” was a momentous period in the country’s parliamentary evolution. There was a functioning legislature where active parliamentary debates were taking place.

Having inherited a weak economy and poor infrastructure, lawmakers passed legislation geared towards improving the economy and raising the standards of living of the citizens.

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Message from the Speaker

The role of a legislative body, or a law-making institution, in any nation with a democratic system of government cannot be over-emphasized. Any nation rich or poor, developed or developing, First World or Third World, great or small has at its very core of effective governance a representative law-making and policy-setting body called either a Legislature, a Congress, a Senate, a House of Representatives or, in the case of our great country Sierra Leone, a Parliament. Parliaments worldwide have been characterized as “the voice of the people,” “a repository of the people’s trust,” “the bastion of democracy,” “the guardian of human rights” and “the rock of freedom.” Whatever they may be described, one thing remains certain: a parliament is part and parcel of democracy. It is a vital cog in the socio-economic, political and cultural wheel of progress or development of a nation through the laws it makes in the national interest.


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News and Updates

Dec09.2008

Parliament goes online

The Parliament of Sierra Leone, tapping new developments in information technology and communication, is now in cyberspace. Its directory, proceedings and rules can now be viewed online via www.sl-parliament.org. 

“This website is a welcome innovation among many others to restructure the Parliament of Sierra Leone and bring government, in our case as the supreme lawmaking body, closer to the people,” said Justice Abel Nathaniel Bankole Stronge, Speaker of Parliament

Technology has given birth to a very popular vehicle of public information which is the electronic medium, or Internet, aside from the traditional radio-television and print media. It has therefore become practical and useful for the Parliament to avail of this information technology to disseminate its rules and procedures, members of Parliament directory, plenary proceedings, committee activities, including Sierra Leone’s Constitution, and other relevant data and statistics, subject to the limitations provided by the Parliament’s internal rules.

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