The new constitution allowed for multi-party elections which were scheduled for October 1992 and ended one-party rule for the All People's Congress (APC).
Ministers of State and members of Sierra Leone's judiciary are appointed by the president and confirmed by the parliament through majority vote.
Sierra Leone has a unicameral legislature and the constitution provides for an independent judiciary vested with the power of judicial review.
The constitution offers specific protections of fundamental human rights, individual liberty and justice and places restrictions on the powers of government over the people.
The goal of this institutional change was to provide for more efficient management of the colony and was not an attempt to prepare Sierra Leone for self-government.
In London between April and May 1960, Milton Margai led a delegation from Sierra Leone to arrange independence from Britain and discuss how this new government would be structured.
Fundamental human rights provisions were entrenched in the constitution and Sierra Leone inherited a Westminster model of parliamentary democracy.
Following the series of military coups between 1967 and 1968, Siaka Stevens was reinstated as Prime Minister of Sierra Leone, a position he was originally elected for in 1967.
[6] In the wake of this period of political instability and economic problems, Stevens set up a Constitutional Review Commission in June 1969.
In April, a republican Constitution was introduced without need for a general election by implementing Albert Margai's earlier draft.
Stevens would remain the President of Sierra Leone until handing over power to Joseph Momoh on November 28, 1985, in a staged election.
[7] In the face of these problems, at the 1990 conference of the Sierra Leone Bar Association members voted unanimously for a return to multi-party democracy, citing one-party rule as a source of national disunity, mistrust, poverty, and corruption.
In April 1992, a cadre of junior military officers, calling themselves the National Provisional Ruling Council, overthrew Momoh's government and suspended the constitution by declaration.
[10] In 1996 power was transferred back to civilian rule, the constitution was reinstated, and Ahmad Kabbah was elected as president in March 1996.
The new constitution makes serious commitments to personal liberty, democracy, and fundamental human rights, contains provisions that do not allow for political organizations structured around ethnic, tribal or religious affiliations, and creates greater separations between the three main branches of government.
The new constitution created an office of Ombudsman which helps to protect individuals against administrative wrongs and abuses of governmental power.