Sierra Leone’s Parliament was plunged into one of its most consequential constitutional confrontations in years on Monday, August 10, as opposition lawmakers walked out of the chamber after the Speaker ruled that Parliament could decide individual provisions of a constitutional amendment bill by simple majority during the committee stage. Its insistence on a vote was intended to establish a broader constitutional principle: whether Parliament, when considering a bill to alter the Constitution, must apply the Constitution’s two-thirds safeguard to substantive decisions concerning the proposed alterations.