THE Southern African Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD) has urged the Patriotic Front (PF) government to consider facilitating a referendum on the botched constitution-making process to give Zambians a people-driven constitution.
The Mung’omba constitution failed to go through second reading in Parliament last year after the previous government failed to garner a two-thirds majority vote for it.
SACCORD executive director Lee Habasonda said in an interview on September 25 that he is hopeful that the PF government will succeed in delivering a people-driven constitution because citizens are behind it.
“The PF government is well supported by the people. Therefore, let them allow the people to be involved in the constitution-making process,” Mr Habasonda said.
He said the PF government’s proposal to constitute a technical committee which will review the work of previous constitution review commissions is the best way to go about producing a people-driven constitution.
Mr Habasonda said the MMD had a chance to deliver a people-driven constitution but spoiled it by not embracing the people.
“The MMD thought it was their constitution and not that of the people. They wanted it to benefit them and not the people,” he said.
Mr Habasonda said he believes President Sata will respond positively to the need for a people-driven constitution.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
just adopt the 50 +1, running veep, no crossing on the floor to avoid money draining bye elections, reduce cabinet not the mungomba way of exploding it, increase powers of auditor general to prosecute ba mambala, include vote of no confidence in MP so that the second best can be tried, per province min 5 women per party to be fielded to increase their voice. no mid term gratuity as some common civil servants have gone months on after retirement without benefits so whats so special about the political office, no using of govt motor vehicles during campaign, no pronouncement and commissioning of developmental projects as a means of vote buying, no use of grz vehicles after 17hrs. reduce presidential motorcade, simple cars to be used to ifi fima prado, benz, bmw as if we are so rich!
no need of deputy ministers and no evacuation to morning side please, we have UTH.
The constitution gives the sitting President too much power…obviously it has been tailor made since the sixties to do that…its indeed about time to sort it out, starting with dates for elections printed in blood (or following a certain pattern), the panel code, dual citizenship and a complete separation of power equally printed in blood…checks and balances should be the norm now…Good luck and may God bless the new President as he thinks over giving us a constitiution that is indeed public driven…
Let the man of action show us that he is for the people by doing just that. Remember, all eyes are on you as the people’s president and the constitution has to be the first step.
yes president must not have too much power else he gets corrupted easily and if sata gets corrupted, lets change govt mid term, so we save ourselves from imimbulu
daily mail changing colors. hahahahaha kwalola fumo eko twalola hhahahaha
Let’s not waste money unnecessarily!!! What is needed in the consitution is already known!
These NGO’s like nsangwapo and thus not thinking straight. Have a costly referendum when all aspects of the constitution was ably covered by the Mungomba constitution. The reason it failed 2nd reading is due to selfishness of seating Government who twigged what was the will of the people. All that is required is for Government to do “White Paper” based on Mungomba. Referendum to be done on the 50+1. This is the less costly way after MMD wasted billions on the same manipulation
Thats it voice of reason!
50+1 is costly. We could be having a re-run of elections right now, seeing neither PF nor MMD got 50+1 votes. What benefit would that be to Zambia?