Will Sierra Leone’s Democracy Make Room for Persons with Disabilities?

Samuel Alpha Sesay, Founder, All Political Party Disability Association. Credit: Madina Kula Sheriff/IPS

By Madina Kula Sheriff
FREETOWN, Apr 10 2026 (IPS)

As Sierra Leone prepares for its next national election in 2028, political parties across the country have begun setting strategies and preparing to select their candidates. However, persons with disabilities say they remain poorly represented and are calling on political parties to nominate them as candidates ahead of the election.

Samuel Alpha Sesay, a person with a physical disability living in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, is among those advocating for change. He still recalls the last general election, held in 2023, and how there was no person with a disability vying for any position in government.

In 2025, he founded the All Political Party Disability Association to challenge the long-standing exclusion of persons with disabilities from governance. Sesay says the lack of representation of persons with disabilities in national elections pushed him to establish the group.

According to Sierra Leone’s 2015 Population and Housing Census, about 93,129 people in the country have a disability, representing approximately 1.3% of the total population. The 2018 Integrated Household Survey reported a higher figure of 310,973 persons with disabilities, accounting for 4.3% of the population.

“For decades, persons with disabilities have actively participated in elections as voters, rarely as candidates, despite forming a significant part of Sierra Leone’s population,” says Sesay, who believes that participation in political parties’ activities alone is no longer enough.

“We do not want to remain in the party wings. We want persons with disabilities to be part of the core leadership of political parties,” he adds.

Breaking Deep-Rooted Perceptions

Sesay and others argue that stigmatisation and deep-rooted societal perceptions are among the barriers affecting their participation in politics.

Sylvanus Bundu, a man with a physical disability in his fifties, agrees with Sesay. He told IPS that one of the most persistent barriers to political inclusion is the perception that persons with disabilities are incapable of effective leadership.

“People feel sorry for us, but we do not want sympathy. Disability does not mean inability. We want society to unlearn these perceptions and allow us to lead,” says Bundu.

He adds that such perceptions are deeply embedded in social and political institutions and often translate into exclusion from candidate selection processes and leadership appointments.

Sesay says similar perceptions once shaped attitudes toward women before the introduction of the 30 percent quota ahead of the 2023 general elections. He argues that such views were used to justify excluding women from leadership positions.

However, he notes that the introduction of the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) Act 2022, which mandates a 30 percent quota for women’s political representation, marked a turning point.

The UN Women Transparency report indicates that following the introduction of the 30% quota under the GEWE Act 2022, women’s representation in Sierra Leone’s Parliament approximately doubled from 14.5% to around 28–30.45%, with notable increases also recorded in local councils and cabinet positions.

“Today, women are leading across sectors and contributing meaningfully to national development. The same transformation can happen if persons with disabilities are given space,” Sesay says, adding that he believes the 2028 elections present a crucial opportunity to shift this dynamic and ensure that affirmative political action is extended to persons with disabilities.

Electoral Quota

Despite international human rights treaties, including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, political representation for persons with disabilities in Sierra Leone remains weak.

Disability rights advocates say the representation of persons with disabilities in Sierra Leone does not even reach one percent a concerning figure in a country where the eleven-year civil war significantly increased the population of people living with disabilities.

The International Foundation for Election Systems reported that, as a result of the civil war and subsequent conflict, more than 3,000 people in Sierra Leone had limbs amputated and many others suffered severe war wounds. The 2015 Population and Housing Census identifies causes such as illness, congenital conditions, accidents and war injuries as contributing to disability prevalence.

Sesay says the solution lies in a legally backed electoral quota system that guarantees representation at both national and local levels.

“We are not asking for short-term appointments. We are asking for long-term, meaningful representation across all regions of the country,” he says.

Bundu believes that inclusion in governance is about policymaking that reflects lived realities. He wants a five percent quota to be clearly enshrined in Sierra Leone’s constitution and the 2011 Persons with Disability Act, both of which are currently under review.

“They say who feels it knows it, so if persons with disabilities are part of governance structures, our needs will be better understood and prioritised,” Bundu says.

While advocates push for enforceable quotas, independent regulatory bodies overseeing political parties cite legislative constraints. Eugene Momoh, Senior Outreach Officer of the Political Parties Regulation Commission (PPRC), an independent regulatory body of political parties, says the commission promotes inclusion but cannot mandate quotas.

“Section 43 of the Political Parties Regulation Commission Act of 2022 requires political parties to endeavour to make adequate provisions for persons with disabilities in executive positions from ward to national level,” states Momoh.

According to him, the commission monitors compliance with this provision by engaging political parties to ensure persons with disabilities are included within their structures. However, Momoh notes that during engagements, party leaders often disclose that persons with disabilities do not actively participate in party activities.

Ibrahim Dumbuya, Acting Secretary General of the Sierra Leone Union on Disability Issues (SLUDI), a disability rights group, acknowledges that interest levels may vary but insists that the willingness to participate exists.

“It is true that some persons with disabilities may not show strong interest in politics, but there are many who do yet are not given the platforms to hold leadership positions within political parties,” says Dumbuya.

He argues that when persons with disabilities engage politically, they are often treated as charity cases, which subjects them to discrimination.

“In some instances, political parties showcase persons with disabilities during political parties’ events, but they do not give them meaningful platforms to contest for parliamentary or local council seats.”

Learning from Uganda

As Sierra Leonean disability rights advocates call for a disability quota system, Uganda offers a working model on the African continent.

Lilian Namukasa, Programme Manager of the National Council for Persons with Disabilities, under the Secretariat for Special Interest Groups, told IPS that Uganda’s quota system, introduced years ago as an affirmative action measure, has led to the representation of persons with disabilities in Parliament and local councils.

“We have five reserved seats for persons with disabilities in Parliament; one of these seats is specifically reserved for a woman with a disability. In fact, in this recent election, we have two parliamentarians who are women with disabilities,” says Namukasa.

She explains that this representation also extends to local government structures nationwide and has created space for people with disabilities to influence policy, budgets and national development.

Namukasa adds that the structured inclusion has translated into tangible outcomes, including the allocation of dedicated funding for the economic empowerment of persons with disabilities, the provision of annual university scholarships, and the introduction of severe disability grants for children with disabilities, among other initiatives.

Crossroads

As the 2028 elections approach, advocates believe Sierra Leone stands at a crossroads. They say the question is no longer whether persons with disabilities can lead, but whether the political system is willing to create space for them to do so.

Whether the country responds to this call, they argue, may well define the depth of its democratic commitment in the years ahead.

“We have voted for others for decades,” Sesay reflects. “Now, we are asking to be voted for.”

IPS UN Bureau Report