NCC urged weigh odds of executive mayor
Ndola, July 31, ZANIS — A Senior Ndola resident has called on the National Constitution Conference ( NCC )to consider the merits and demerits of having an executive mayor elected by the electorate in the District.
Mr. Evans Chibwe told ZANIS in Ndola, on Thursday, that the provision in the next republican constitution needed wider debate because an executive mayor who would be a fulltime employee of a given council could de-erail development as he will have too much power over the district.
He said in cases were some districts whose mayoral leadership could go to either the opposition or the ruling party, might want to run the council affairs unfavourably in accordance to the particular parties’s vision.
Mr Chibwe cited Kabwe and Kapiri-Mposhi districts as areas that suffered for embracing the opposition as members of parliament.
He said a non performing executive mayor could be a thorn to the council’s development program as the institute would be mandated to respect the mayor’s five year term in office.
He added that the decentralization policy was good except it was a process which should take time to be understood for effective implementation.
He said Zambia needed serious minded people sitting at the NCC to navigate all the pros and cons of having an elected executive mayor.
” Sometimes when a politician enjoys too much political supprot at election time, he or she does do not perform in accordance to the electorate’s mandate,” he said.
Mr. Chibwe added that some politicians have been able to perform to the satisfaction of the people because of having gained minority votes through the ‘ first pass the post system’ which has worked well in the country, so far.
He said even the 51+1 percent for presidency needed caution because of people wanted to change the presidency, the could do it with or without a cosntitutional clause as was in 1991.
He said minority presidents were also seen from experience to perform in order to justify their candidature.
He said it was also an advantage to the people to have a minority president sot hat he could through his good governance record prove his suitability to all.
ZANIS/CN/SC/ENDS/MM
There we go, what will be the TORs of this mayor and how difference will they be from the Town Clerk and who will appoint this mayor? Retrogressive thinking as a matter of fact we should not even have councillors in the first place, they are just wasting our time.
A mayor voted for by the people of the city or town,I think it will be great.The current system stinks.We have mayors who are voted by a few councilors and they do not answer to the citizens but the council members and their party.But if they were voted in by the residents of the entire city they can be more responsible.The people can also make their demands to the mayor known and he can’t bribe the entire city to be mayor,this time they do bribe other councilors.I think it will be more democratic!
#1 Read carefully before you post comments! The ELECTORATE is going to appoint the Executive mayor. Current mayors are creatures of political parties to whom they are answerable. They do not owe loyalty to the residents of a locality. Their tenure is dependent on their relationship with the leader of a political party ,for example Michael Sata. Look at how many Mayors Lusaka has had from 2 years ago!