The Grand Coalition on People driven Constitution has said that it will hold republican president Edgar Lungu responsible if the constitution bill in parliament fails. In a statement released to the media and signed by the chairman Father Leonard Chiti, the Grand Coalition accused President Lungu of setting up the constitution to fail by taking it to parliament.
Below is the full statement
Press Statement
President Lungu will be held responsible if the Constitution fails in Parliament
Lusaka, 21 November 2015
The Grand Coalition on the Campaign for a People Driven Constitution has observed that President Edgar Lungu has finally acknowledged that he set up the Constitution to fail by taking it Parliament.
On Thursday 19 November 2015, President Lungu said he if the constitutional amendment bill was not passed in parliament, he “will keep away from it” and vowed that he would not “touch it in future”.
It is not surprising that the President is predicting that the Constitution will be sabotaged in Parliament before the process has even started, because he knew all along that the Parliamentary Route to amending such a document was treacherous and risky. The President deliberately set up the whole process to fail by taking it to the wrong platform.
The GC has consistently advocated against this route for the very reason that it is treacherous and would subject the constitution to failure. The GC therefore asserts that President Lungu cannot wash his hands off the constitution at this moment, when it has been his intention all along, to see the process fail. This is because the Patriotic Front does not want the new constitution to be enacted in their lifetime as a ruling party altogether. From the time they saw that the draft constitution was progressive and would ensure good governance, the President and his party have never been interested in delivering it because the PF seems to be not interested in fostering good governance in this country.
The President wants to hoodwink the people of Zambia so that they can blame the parliamentarians and the opposition for the PF’s failure to deliver a new constitution before 2016, a snare the GC was very much aware from the beginning when the Government abandoned its position of cherry picking clauses for amendment. The people of Zambia are not foolish and they cannot be easily misled. We all know that it is President Lungu and his party the Patriotic Front who do not want a new constitution because it will give more power to the people.
What kind of a leader who “washes off” his hands on his responsibilities, after having made so many public promises to deliver a new constitution during the campaign? The Grand Coalition hereby reminds the President that if he washes off his hands on the constitution, he would have also washed off his hands on the Presidency, and people of Zambia will wash him off from that office in 2016 too.
The Grand Coalition is aware that the PF have already decided which provisions they do not want and we have been reliably informed that they plan to drop all the progressive provisions and retain the provisions on dual citizenship, the date of the election and the renaming of the Police Force to Police Service. We know that they have even taken steps in pursuit of this scheme, by engaging some Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) MPs to support them. This is unacceptable.
Whatever fails in Parliament cannot be blamed on the opposition because it is the PF that has a majority, and they have also joined forces with the MMD. The PF have 87 Members of Parliament, while the opposition parties and independent MPs hold combined total of 71 seats. Out of the 71 opposition MPs, 12 have been appointed to the PF Government as Ministers, Deputy Ministers and New Constitution, Better Lives for Allprovincial ministers. This means practically, the PF has at least 109 MPs pushing its agenda in the National Assembly. So if there is any scheme to make the constitution fail in Parliament, it is by the PF.
On our part as the Grand Coalition, we have been consistent and principled that the Parliamentary route to amend a people’s document is undemocratic, treacherous, fraudulent, retrogressive, counter-productive and undermines the power vested in the people by the constitution.
The Grand Coalition will continue to remind the people of Zambia who are the real bosses that their servants – the President and the Patriotic Front – have failed on their task to deliver a new constitution and should therefore pave way for servants who will act in line with their bosses’ aspirations. The people of Zambia are the bosses, and the President and his party should not think they would be doing us any favour by delivering a new constitution because that is their responsibility. If they fail on that responsibility, the people of Zambia will chuck them out in 2016.
To this end, the GC strongly believes that the failure of this process in parliament which has become the graveyard for draft constitutions in Zambia, lies squarely on the President’s head, shoulder and hands and he cannot escape blame.
Issued by:
Fr Leonard Chiti
Grand Coalition Chairperson
From a “90 days” miracle party PF has now become a 90 YEARS DISASTER PARTY!
Sata, Lungu and the rest of these incompetent PF clowns have failed in virtually everything.
We cannot leave these corrupt swines in charge of our Zambia any longer. 2016 is TOO LATE!
Lungu and his failures must resign NOW and make way for a sensible Government. Enough of this nonsense!
“The Grand Coalition hereby reminds the President that if he washes off his hands on the constitution, he would have also washed off his hands on the Presidency, and people of Zambia will wash him off from that office in 2016 too”………….kikikiki………..you decampained him when he refused to sign the contract with you on the constitution but he still went ahead and won……..Viva ECL
I just came back from zambia and the country is a joke.
Too many people illiterate,
There are shops but no ones shops from them, they all go to the market
They perceive unhealthy looks with pot belly as doing well’ when I asked.
The country is warped.
A joke of a place and so dirty, and most are very dark because of sunshine burns I dont blame though.
Thank goodness I am back home here
I gave all my old clothes and people were so happy
Thanks
BB2014
Why blame Edgar on EVERYTHING except football?
how do you expect the PF to make leeway for the enactment of this document when they readily know that it will definitely work against them through & through,be it during elections or governence.mind you it has a lot of contacious clauses they are trying by all means possible to evade,in the same manner that they’ve dodged their policies.this is a sure way of wanting to cling on to power by this accidental President! more popcorn please…
More pop corn indeed, Greek tragedy, ZAMBIAN VERSION
One Lazy Lungu is one man you can tell is dull and an empty tin from only his photos…he doesn’t need to open his mouth for you to hear him speak.
Why are we looking after Lungu in State house? He’s not sorting out out our economic problems and not sorting the constitution process. Is he just a cadres them living in plot one. Zambians need to deal with this once and w for all.
He is a constitional crisis himself, how could he overseen a legitimate process, middle name says it all
Unfortunately, the rest of the masses, the zambian people do not understand that their problems start from the constitution. Load shedding, collapsing kwacha, violent PF cadres, bulging of the cabinet, fruitless expenditure in government, and a whole lot of things going wrong in the country is as a result of a poor constitution. Once a new constitution is enacted, you will see a complete new zambia. But alas, Zambians dont want to live good because they dont understand how to live good. The dont understand the constitution.
Unfortunately, the rest of the masses, the zambian people do not understand that their problems start from the constitution. Load shedding, collapsing kwacha, violent PF cadres, bulging of the cabinet, fruitless expenditure in government, and a whole lot of things going wrong in the country is as a result of a poor constitution. Once a new constitution is enacted, you will see a complete new zambia. But alas, Zambians dont want to live good because they dont understand how to live good. The dont understand the constitution.
GCC you really are merchants of death. You are killing the future of Zambia. Instead of taking the interests of Zambians as paramount you have prioritized your personal interests to oppose the President on partisan grounds. Up to now you have failed to tell the nation that the Parliamentary route is an option that can still give us a valid constitution. You are so focused on seeing the President fail yet you know @ the bottom of your hearts that the Constitution Bill represents the closest we have come as country to getting a constitution that is people driven. You also know that you are doing the country a disservice by opposing the Constitution Bill. You should just accept that you have failed the nation and you should disband. It is you and not the President who are to blame if we do…
This Chiti chap will never rest, it would appear, until he is made to account for the donor money he must have squandered on the anti-Zambian government misguided propaganda crusade that he has been churning out on a daily basis.
You must be a F.OOL
Ths is probably the stupidest emptiest most insipidly speculative piece of malicious nonsense without content I have read in at least 20 years.
So Chiti and his so called GCC didn’t want the bill to go to parliament and now he wants it to work while the UPND MPs keeps walking out? Seems this man and his GCC are grossly cynical. Was this GCC formed by the nation at the consent of the Zambian people as a whole or its self-appointed for own potbellies as usual?
@Mervis:
Why are making an id.iot of yourself!! Lungu should just honour the 90 days they promised us – is that too much to ask. It is now nearly 5 years when they promised us that it would be within 90 days – so why would someone with 5 senses want to wash their hands now!! You are so FOO.LISH to try and defend this really!! Ar.sewhore you are!!
Okay since we cannot agree,so let’s agree that in fact we dont want a new constitution, that its just a waste of state resources, that we are happy with what President Chiluba left us. Surely we cannot spend our time ranting over some neatly bound pieces of paper! When we have an economy to mend, lives to save from poverty, hey?
We the zambian people know who we shall hold responsible. Definitely not Lungu or Chiti but some MPS chewing our money for opposing to everything from our govt.