The rumors have been circulating for weeks. In the corridors of political commentary, on radio call-in programmes, and across social media timelines in Freetown, a question has gathered momentum: can President Julius Maada Bio remove the newly appointed Chief Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Edmond Sylvester Alpha, from office?
The answer, according to one of the All People’s Congress’s most legally astute former parliamentarians, is a firm and constitutionally grounded no.
Speaking on the WiYard programme on Monday, April 20, 2026, the former Majority Leader in Parliament and Head of Government Business, Hon. Ibrahim Bundu, made a striking intervention one that cut across party lines and went straight to the legal architecture of the matter. Bundu, himself a senior figure in the APC and a man not known for pulling punches, said plainly that his own party’s call for Alpha to stand down has no constitutional basis.
His argument rested on two provisions embedded in Sierra Leone’s 1991 Constitution: the Hierarchy of the Law and the Security of Tenure.
The Chief Electoral Commissioner’s appointment, Bundu explained, is a fixed-term contract and not one that the President can undo at will. Unlike Cabinet Ministers, who serve at the pleasure of the President and can be dismissed by executive fiat, the Chief Electoral Commissioner occupies a constitutionally insulated office. To remove him, a valid reason must exist criminal misconduct or proven professional dereliction and even then, a lengthy procedural process must be followed. The President cannot simply act. The constitution will not permit it.
To understand the current controversy, one must go back to February 2026.
On February 20, 2026, President Bio announced the appointment of Mr. Edmond Sylvester Alpha as Chief Electoral Commissioner and Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone, pursuant to Section 32(3) of the Constitution of Sierra Leone, 1991.
That appointment followed formal consultations with leaders of registered political parties, as required by Section 32(3), which mandates that members of the Electoral Commission are appointed by the President after consultation with the leaders of all registered political parties and subject to the approval of Parliament.
The consultation process produced endorsement from 12 of the 14 registered political parties. It was, by any procedural measure, a process with substantial cross-party support.
Parliament completed its role on February 27. The Parliament of Sierra Leone debated and approved the Sixth Report of the Committee on Appointments and Public Service, paving the way for the confirmation of Mr. Edmond Sylvester Alpha as Chief Electoral Commissioner and Chairman. Alpha was subsequently sworn in at a ceremony at State House on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, at which President Bio reaffirmed his commitment to constitutionalism and the independence of elections.
The APC, despite participating in the consultation process, was not satisfied. The party raised serious concerns over Alpha’s suitability, citing his role as Commissioner for the Eastern Region during the 2023 Presidential and General Elections polls the APC and international observers described as lacking transparency and marked by statistical inconsistencies. The party argued that these concerns constituted sufficient grounds to disqualify Alpha from ever serving as Chief Electoral Commissioner.
The APC issued a press release rejecting the appointment, called on the government to rescind it, and gave a 48-hour ultimatum threatening to withdraw APC’s elected officials from Parliament, local councils, and other governance structures.
The APC’s demands, however impassioned, ran headlong into the constitutional text.
Section 32(11) of the 1991 Constitution states unequivocally: “In the exercise of any functions vested in it by the Constitution, the Electoral Commission shall not be subject to the direction or control of any person or authority.” This provision was designed precisely to insulate the ECSL from political interference and it cuts both ways. It protects the Commission from being directed by government; it equally protects the Commissioner from being removed at the political convenience of any party, ruling or opposition.
The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, had already made this point publicly. He stated that calls by the APC for the reversal of Alpha’s appointment were not only excessive but legally unfeasible, emphasising that the process for appointing and removing an Electoral Commissioner is clearly defined in the country’s legal framework and that such decisions cannot be arbitrarily reversed based on political demands.
The Presidential Press Secretary, Yusuf Keketoma Sandi, was equally direct. He affirmed that Edmond Sylvester Alpha will continue to serve as Chief Electoral Commissioner in accordance with the law, noting that Alpha’s sustained leadership is critical to ongoing efforts aimed at improving transparency, accountability, and public trust in the electoral process ahead of the 2028 polls.
What makes Hon. Bundu’s intervention particularly significant is not simply what he said it is who said it. As a former APC Majority Leader, a man who once commanded the floor of Parliament on behalf of the very party now demanding Alpha’s removal, his legal reading carries the weight of someone who has no incentive to defend the government’s position and every reason to side with his party yet chose the Constitution instead.
Beneath the legal argument lies a more complex political reality.
Critics have argued that the government proceeded with a substantive, permanent appointment while the Constitution of Sierra Leone (Amendment) Act 2025 Bill which would establish a new, more transparent appointment committee for the ECSL was still before Parliament. This, they contended, constituted a deliberate act of bad faith that sought to entrench a Chief Electoral Commissioner under the old system specifically to pre-empt the very reforms the nation had agreed upon.
Proponents of the appointment countered that the ECSL had been in receipt of an Independent Management and Functional Review Report requiring long-term, decisive leadership to implement, and that leaving the Commission without a substantive Chief Electoral Commissioner would pose a needless risk to institutional preparedness and public confidence with the 2028 elections approaching.
Both arguments contain elements of merit. That is precisely what makes this dispute so revealing. Sierra Leone’s electoral reform conversation is not simply about one man’s appointment or removal. It is about whether political actors on all sides are prepared to let constitutional processes run their course, even when those processes produce outcomes they dislike.
For the APC, the irony is pointed. A party that has historically invoked the constitution when it served its interests is now, at least in the view of its own former parliamentary leader, asking the constitution to bend in a direction it simply will not go.
Civil society groups have already moved to recognise Alpha’s appointment, with a Coalition of Civil Society and Human Rights Activists formally congratulating him and describing the appointment process and parliamentary vetting as a reflection of the country’s functioning democratic institutions.
The ECSL, under Alpha’s leadership, is expected to continue electoral reform preparations consultations with political parties, implementation of the management review report, and operational groundwork for the 2028 general elections.
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Unless Alpha commits proven criminal or professional misconduct a threshold the 1991 Constitution requires to be established before any removal process can be initiated the rumours of his departure will remain exactly that: rumours.
Hon. Ibrahim Bundu has read the law. And the law, in this instance, is unambiguous. The Chief Electoral Commissioner is not going anywhere.
