No, the walkout by the All People’s Congress (APC) in Sierra Leone’s Parliament today does not automatically nullify the passage of the Constitutional Amendment Bill. Because the remaining members of parliament maintained a legal quorum, the bill was successfully voted on and passed.However, the walkout has triggered a major political and constitutional showdown regarding whether the vote’s threshold was legally sufficient.The Core of Today’s Dispute The entire standoff between the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the opposition APC centers on a legal disagreement over the voting threshold required at this specific legislative stage:The Speaker’s Ruling: Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Segepoh Solomon Thomas ruled that a simple majority (under Section 91 of the Constitution) was legally sufficient for the current stage of considering the bill, arguing that the immediate proceedings were not yet altering the final text.The APC’s Stance: Led by Minority Leader Hon. Abdul Kargbo, 49 APC MPs fiercely objected. They argued that because it is a Constitutional Amendment Bill, it must strictly meet the two-thirds majority requirement outlined in Section 108(b) of the Sierra Leone Constitution to be valid.Why the Vote Proceeded and “Stayer” Dynamics When a vote on a proposal regarding the appointment of Electoral Commissioners resulted in a 96–41 outcome, Hon. Abdul Kargbo declared that 96 votes were legally insufficient to meet the constitutional threshold. He then ordered the APC caucus to stage a principled walkout.Two notable things happened immediately after the walkout:The Stayers Passed It: Not every single opposition member left. Two suspended APC MPs (Hon. Mohamed Bangura and Hon. Alfred Thompson) chose to stay behind alongside the ruling party. Because the “stayers” met the general parliamentary quorum rules, Parliament moved forward and officially passed the Constitutional Amendment Bill before adjourning until October.Supreme Court Referral: Recognizing the severity of the legal dispute, the Speaker announced that he will refer the matter to the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone for a definitive judicial interpretation on which voting threshold truly applied.The Final Verdict Politically and procedurally, the bill is considered passed by the house for now. The walkout itself does not nullify it. Instead, the legal survival of the amendment now rests entirely with the Supreme Court, which will decide if the simple majority vote used by the remaining MPs violated Section 108 of the Constitution
