Sierra Leone

=== Parliament ===

The Parliament of Sierra Leone is [[unicameral]], with 146 seats. Each of the country's 14 districts is represented in parliament. 132 members are elected concurrently with the presidential elections; the other 16 seats are filled by [[paramount chief]]s from the country's 16 [[Administrative division|administrative districts]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-06-01|title=Parliament of Sierra Leone > Home|url=http://www.parliament.gov.sl/|access-date=2021-02-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190601231404/http://www.parliament.gov.sl/|archive-date=1 June 2019}}</ref> The Sierra Leone parliament is led by the Speaker of Parliament, who is the overall leader of Parliament and is directly elected by sitting members of parliament. The current speaker of the Sierra Leone parliament is [[Abass Bundu]], who was elected by members of parliament on 21 January 2014.

The current members of the Parliament of Sierra Leone were elected in the 2012 Sierra Leone parliamentary election. The APC currently has 68 of the 132 elected parliamentary seats and the [[Sierra Leone People's Party]] (SLPP) has 49 of the elected 132 parliamentary seats. Sierra Leone's two most dominant [[political party|parties]], the APC and the SLPP, collectively won every elected seat in Parliament in the 2012 Sierra Leone parliamentary election. To be qualified as a Member of Parliament, the person must be a citizen of Sierra Leone, must be at least 21 years old, and must be able to speak, read, and write the English language with a degree of proficiency to enable him to actively take part in proceedings in Parliament; and must not have any criminal conviction.<ref name="nyulawglobal.org"/>

Since independence in 1961, Sierra Leone's politics has been dominated by two major political parties: the SLPP and the APC. Other minor political parties have also existed but with no significant support.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Sierra Leone National Election Commission Bulletin
|date=September–December 2011
|url=http://www.nec-sierraleone.org/Bulletin.html
|access-date=25 February 2012
|archive-date=14 November 2012
|archive-url=https://swap.stanford.edu/20121114222820/http://www.nec-sierraleone.org/Bulletin.html
|url-status=dead
}}</ref>