DIDACTIC: "POLL OF POLITICAL ACTORS" BY MOHAMED SMART ALUSINE

All the stages are set.  

Optimistic and pessimistic with a crucial speck.  

The political actors at the poll for or against the PR are at bet.  

Voice too loud but cannot reach those to hear

Actors when decide, the people bear.  

Tomorrow the chambers will hum before the sun is high  

Leather chairs and wooden gavels, dust that remembers war and peace  

Papers stacked like promises, ink waiting for a hand  

For PR, they say: every vote must count the same  

Against PR, they say: keep the link of man to place  

The radio crackles in Bo, in Makeni, in Kenema streets  

Market women fold cassava leaves and fold opinions too  

Students debate under mango trees with borrowed phones for facts  

Elders remember '96, remember ballots and long lines  

Young men remember unemployment forms and waiting  

Optimism wears a green and white badge and smiles at cameras  

Pessimism sits in the back, counting what could be lost  

A crucial speck of doubt sits between them like salt  

Because systems are tools, not magic, and tools can cut both ways  

The Speaker calls order while whispers climb the walls  

Coalitions trade numbers the way traders trade dollars  

One side speaks of fairness, of seats that mirror the vote  

The other speaks of roots, of MPs who know your village road  

No shouting will make a deaf ear hear, yet the shouting grows  

Microphones echo, but the hills are far from the podium  

And still the decision will travel down to every compound  

If PR passes, lists will rise and small parties breathe  

If PR fails, constituencies keep the weight they’ve always held  

Both roads claim to carry democracy forward  

Both roads ask the people to watch, to hold to account  

The press writes headlines tonight, tomorrow writes history  

In Freetown the rain may fall, or the sun may hold steady  

Either way, the chamber lights will burn late  

Clerks shuffle amendments like cards in a patient game  

Lobbyists wait in corridors with practiced, quiet smiles  

Citizens wait at home with radios low, hearts louder  

This is not about winners only, but about the rules we live by  

A rule can open doors, a rule can narrow them  

So the actors weigh numbers, and the people weigh consequences  

Vote yes, say some, for proportionality’s clean math  

Vote no, say others, for the familiar anchor of a name  

Between yes and no lives a country trying to grow  

Let the debate be loud, but let it end in law  

Let the loser concede, let the winner remember service  

Because when actors decide, the people bear  

The school fees, the clinic queue, the road with potholes  

The promise that this vote is not the end, but a beginning  

Sierra Leone, land of stubborn hope and tested patience  

Tomorrow you do not choose a hero, you choose a method  

And methods only work when hands stay on the wheel  

Poll of political actors — may wisdom, not noise, be what is heard.  

© Mohamed Smart Alusine.

Sierra Leone.

“Poll of Political Actors” by Mohamed Smart Alusine is a political and didactic poem that examines the debate surrounding proportional representation (PR) in Sierra Leone. The poem presents two opposing groups of political actors: those who support PR because they believe it will ensure that votes are represented more fairly, and those who oppose it because they value the connection between elected representatives and specific constituencies.

The poet shifts attention from Parliament to ordinary citizens, showing that political decisions affect everyone, regardless of whether they participate directly in the debate. Through images of market women, students, elders, young people, and citizens listening to the radio, the poem emphasizes the importance of political decisions to everyday life. It also acknowledges both the optimism surrounding electoral reform and the doubts about whether a new system will necessarily produce better governance.

The poem ultimately argues that neither political side should be concerned only with winning. What matters is choosing a system that promotes democracy, accountability, fairness, and effective representation. The poet calls for wisdom rather than political noise, peaceful acceptance of electoral outcomes, and responsible leadership after decisions are made.

In essence, “Poll of Political Actors” is a reflection on democracy and electoral reform. It reminds Sierra Leoneans that political systems are merely tools and that their success depends on how responsibly political actors use them. The poem ends with a message of cautious hope, urging the nation to choose its political methods wisely while remaining committed to democratic progress and the welfare of the people.