RENNER-THOMAS, C.J.
The Plaintiff, Samuel Hinga Norman, describes himself for the purposes of the action herein as a member of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party, the Third Defendant herein, (hereinafter referred to as “the SLPP”)
“who aspires to be Presidential Candidate at the 2007 Presidential elections, but who is keenly concerned that the pristine democratic credentials and processes of the SLPP are maintained, entered and facilitated in all its internal structure, organization, operations, programmes, activities and functioning’.
The First Defendant herein, Dr. Sama Banya, is described as the National chairman of the SLPP. The Second Defendant, Dr. Prince Harding, is described as the national Secretary-General of the SLPP. The SLPP is a political party registered
pursuant to the provisions of the Constitution, Act. No.6 of 1991(hereinafter referred to as “the National Constitution”) and the Political Parties Act, No.3 of 2002 (hereinafter referred to as the “Political Parties Act”).
Apparently, some time in July 2005 the National Executive Council of the SLPP (hereinafter referred to as ‘the NEC”) held a meeting in Freetown and took a decision that a Party Conference of the SLPP was going to be held in Makeni in the Northcrn Region of Sierra Leone on the 19" and 20" day of August 2005. Among other things, it was proposed to elect the Presidential Nominee of the SLPP for the 2007 elections who, pursuant to Clause V(2)(c) of the 1995 Constitution of the SLPP, automatically becomes the Party Leader of the SLPP after such election.
According to the Statement of the Plaintiff's Case the Plaintiff is of the view that it is too premature to choose a Presidential Nominee for the SLPP anytime in 2005 for the Presidential elections due to be held in 2007. Apparently, it was the Plaintiff's dissatisfaction with the decision of the NEC of the SLPP to go ahead with the election of the Presidential Nominee of the SLPP at the Party Conference scheduled for 19" — 20" August 2005 that prompted the Plaintiff to institute these proceedings. The Plaintiff commenced this action by way of an Originating Notice of Motion dated 27°
day of July 2005 invoking the original jurisdiction of this Court, according to the title of the action, pursuant to sections 122, 124(1), 127 and 171(15) of the National Constitution. By this action, the Plaintiff seeks from this Court several reliefs, four by way of declarations and one injunctive, the text of which | hereby set out in extenso:-
A DECLARATION to the effect that the Constitution of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) dated July 1995 (hereinafter also called “the SLPP Constitution”) is the authentic currently applicable Constitution of
the Sierra Leone People’s Party (also herein called “the Party” or “the SLPP”) for the purposes of the functioning and operation of the Party in terms of the National Constitution and the Political Parties Act, No.3 of
2002.
z: A DECLARATION to the effect that, where an incumbent President of the Republic of Sierra Leone was originally elected thereto in compliance with the following provisions in the respective Constitutions as cited herein below, among others, to wit.
i) as to the SLPP Constitution:
a) Clause IV (A)(3)(i) thereof,
b) Clause V(1)(c) and (d) thereof,
c) Clause V(2)(c) thereof, being under the rubrics
“Duties of Officers” and “Leader”, and
d) Clause VI(b) and (f), and
ii) as to the National Constitution
a) section 41(b) thereof,
b) section 42(1) thereof; and
c) section 43 thereof,
then, in that case, the following interpretive conclusions are or would be, each by itself, within the spirit, intendment, contemplation, and indeed inescapable force and effect, of the said SLPP Constitution, viz:
(1) That the SLPP Constitution makes no express or specific provision for the substantive independent existence, or for the direct nomination, election, selection, choice or identification, as the case may be, of the Leader of the SLPP as such, but, rather, that any such nomination, election, selection, choice or identification, as the case may be, of the said Leader takes place only indirectly as a consequential or derivative issue from the process of nominating, electing, selecting, choosing or identifying, as the case may be, the Party’s Presidential Nominee for the next pending national Presidential election.
(2) That the position of Leader of the SLPP is not a free-standing office or status in its own right, but rather, that it is, by virtual definition, dependent upon the position of Presidential Nominee for the said party, thereby making it so intertwined or associated with the Office of State President at any time when an SLPP member holds the said Presidency as to make the two positions indivisible and inseparable one from the other at all such times.
(3) | That at anytime when the SLPP is in power and/or a member thereof is the lawful incumbent President of Sierra Leone, the two positions of Leader of the party and State President may or can only be either held together and jointly or relinquished together and jointly, and never otherwise at any such time, so that an incumbent thereof may not selectively relinquish one of them and yet hold or seek to continue holding to the other, nor may two different persons at one and the same time or simultaneously hold the two positions separately, i.e. one position to one of them and the other to the
other.
(4) That the SLPP Constitution makes no express or specific provision for the
Substantive independent existence of, or for any nomination, election,
selection, choice or identification (as the case may be) of, a Leader of the
SLPP as such, at anytime when the said Party is either notin power or
not providing the incumbent President of Sierra Leone or when a
national Presidential election is not immediately due to be held.
3: A DECLARATION to the effect that, in view of the following Party and National constitutional and other legislative provisions respectively, among others, to wit:
clause II(4), |V(A)(1), 1V(B)(5)(b) and (c) and (i), V(2)(c) as aforesaid, and X
of the SLPP Constitution; Sections 6, 14(1), 24, 27 and 29 of the Political Parties Act, No.3 of 2002;
and Sections 35(2) and (4), 42(1), 43(a) and (b); 46(1), 49(4), 76(1)(h), and
171(15) of the National Constitution, then, in view thereof, the foliowing interpretive conclusions are or would be, each by itself, within the spirit, intendment, contemplation, and indeed inescapable force and
effect, of the said provisions respectively, viz:
1. That as at the date of filing the application herein, there are or were at least two or three regular annual meetings and an unspecified number of possible special other meetings of the Party Conference of the SLPP still to be held before the Presidential and Parliamentary elections of 2007 are or were due to be held, to wit, the annual Party Conferences for the years 2005, 2006 and possibly 2007 and any other special or other mee ‘ing(s) of the Party Conference “as may be determined by the National Executive Council’.
2. That, without any prejudice whatsoever to the holding of the Party Conference (as such) slated for 19-20 August 2005 or at all otherwise in: 2005, the nomination, election, selection, choice or identification, as the case may be, whether attempted or purported, of a Presidential Nominee and/or Leader of the SLPP at the said Party Conference, that is to say, almost two years before the Presidential and Parliamentary elections of 2007 are due to be held, has or would have or leads or would lead to the following interpretive consequences, viz:
(i) it and will in itself be grossly premature and incomportant with democratic principles, for being inconsistent with and in contravention of the provisions in sections 35(2) and 43(a) and (b) of the National Constitution, and accordingly void and of no effect’
it is and will in practice be grossly unfair to certain individual members of the Party and potentially prejudicial to their interests vis-a-vis the Presidency and even to the wider related interests of the Party itself and the nation at large, in that;
a) it does and will tend to operate to prematurely preclude and exclude certain potential aspirants to that or those position(s) who, for reasons of present untimeliness or prematurity or otherwise, may not yet, as at 19-20 August 2005 or at any other time in 2005, have indicated their intentions or aspirations in respect thereof, but may be likely as at the due and proper time in 2006 or 2007 to make such intentions or aspirations publicly known at the appropriate time.
b)it is and will be likely to deprive the SLPP itself as a democratic national Party of a possible better quality or more popular Presidential candidate who, however, for reasons of present untimeliness or prematurity or otherwise, may not yet, as at 19-20 August 2005 or at any other time in 2005, have indicated his/her intentions or aspirations in respect thereof, but may wish as at the due and proper time in 2006 or 2007 to make such intenticns or aspirations publicly known at the appropriate time; and it is also likely to deprive the said Party or a fairer and more informed choice of a Presidential Nominee or Candidate, thereby putting the SLPP at a possible electoral disadvantage vis-a-vis the Presidential candidates of other political parties and thus at the risk of losing the Presidential elections of 2007 against the said other parties; it is and will be likely to deprive the entire nation itself and the people of Sierra Leone as a whole of a possible better quality Presidential Candidate and potential ultimate President of Sierra Leone who, however, for reasons of present untimeliness of prematurity or otherwise, may not yet, as at 19-20 August 2005 or at any other time in 2005, have indicated his/her intentions or aspirations in respect thereof, but may wish as at the due and
proper time in 2006 or 2007 to make such intentions or aspirations publicly known at the appropriate time, with all the
possible attendant risks of prejudice (arising from an inapt choice due to the said gross prematurity) to the prospects of good governance, peace and positive national economic and other
development during the five to ten years following the next Presidential election; it is or will, in any case, be tantamount to an amendment or attempted/ purported amendment of the SLPP Constitution, and accordingly
inconsistent with and in contravention of the provisions in Clauses 11(4), /V(B)(5)(b) and (c) and (i), and X of the said SLPP Constitution, and with any of those of section 24 of the Political Parties Act 2002 and sections
35(2) and (4) and 76(1)(h) of the National Constitution, and therefure unlawtul, void and of no effect
That the positions of Leader and Deputy Leader of the SLPP, in the manner and to the extent that they have been and/or are being held by specified incumbents respectively over the past ten years or so, that is to
say, since at least 1996 and uptil now, were and are so held in contravention of the provisions in section 14(1) of the Political Parties Act and sections 35(4) and 76(1)(h) of the National Constitution and so, as
held, were and are void and of no effect
That, in so far as and to the extent that the current SLPP Constitution remains and reads as it stands at the present time and at least up to 12 months hence, it is unlawful for the said Party to nominate, elect, select. choose or otherwise identify, as the case may be, a Leader of the SLPP as such, or to attempt/purport to so do, at any Party Conference or indeed at anytime at all within the next 12 months from the date of filing this application.
That, in view especially of the provisions of sections 14(1) of the Political Parties Act 2002, and 35(4) and 76(1)(h) of the National Constitution, a person who is for the time being the President, the Vice-President, a Minister or a Deputy Minister in the Government under the provisions of the National Constitution may not and must not be, and ought not to be,
either:
a) Leader of the SLPP, or
b) A member of the executive body or officers of the SLPP, whether
national or otherwise, or
c) The National Secretary-General of the SLPP.
That the position of National Secretary-General of the SLPP, in the manner and to the extent that it has been or is being held by a Minister of Government, to wit, by the 2" Defendant herein over the past three years or so, that is to say, at least since around June 2002 and up until now, was and is so held in contravention of the provisions in section 14(1) of the Political Parties Act 2002 and sections 35(4) and 76(1)(h) of the National Constitution and so, as held, was and is void and of no effect since at least June 2002 up until now.
That, in consequence of all the provisions and conclusions cited and recited in the current declaratory relief and its foregoing sub-items 3(1) to (6) inclusive herein, the SLPP as a Party is already dangerously left
open and exposed to a present risk of disqualification and disestablishment applications to the Supreme Court, on the one hand by the relevant Commission for an order to cancel the registration of the Party and, on the other hand, by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice after such cancellation for an order to wind up and dissolve the SLPP, pursuant respectively to sections 27 and 29 of the Political Parties Act 2002.