Friday, March 29, 2024

Parties should internalize the amended constitution- Nakacinda

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Raphael Nakacinda MMD Spokesperson
Raphael Nakacinda MMD Spokesperson

MMD Spokesperson Raphael Nakacinda has called on political parties in the country to internalize the amended constitution so as to make it in tandem with the party structures as opposed to seeking alliances for sole purpose of wining elections.

Mr Nakacinda expressed concern that the current debate on the constitution has focused on who is joining hands with who instead of the contents of the document and how parties can work with the new document.

He said due to the direction of the debate on some clauses in the constitution political players are making maneuvers and trying to position themselves strategically with the hope of benefiting from the new election process.

He explained that the debate on alliances has focused on individuals as opposed to political parties as institutions something he said is a danger as the whole process will be reduced to personal deals.

“As political parties we need to start responding to the amended constitution by beginning to structure ourselves as institutions so as to be in tandem with the new constitution but unfortunately when you look at the debate which is going on right now people including the media are just asking questions on which political party are you going to work with in an alliance, on what basis are those alliances going to be formed? First of all as an independent political party we should work on our own template resulting from our restructuring process which would guide us as to how we go into an alliance,” he said.

He added that in developed democracies alliances are not made by leaders of political parties but party organs which sit and agree on how to go about forming an alliance.

He said alliances must be formed on the basis of compromise on policy because an alliance should be aimed at serving people’s interests as opposed to individual interests.

And Mr Nakacinda has castigated the people calling for the amendments to some clauses in the newly amended constitution.

Mr Nakacinda said that it is unfortunate that a national process has been turned into a money making venture by some politicians including those from the ruling party and the civil society.

He wondered where the people crying foul where during the entire process that they can come now and call some of the clauses discriminatory as the amended constitution came about because of submissions from the people and debated by members of the public at various stages.

He further wondered whether the activists who were calling for the referendum had gone through the entire document saying had they done so they wouldn’t have been wearing black to go and protest at parliament building that they wanted a referendum yet turn around and call other clauses discriminatory.

Mr Nakacinda was speaking during a live discussion program dabbed the round table on CBC TV on Saturday.

In pic, Mr Nakacinda talking to Journalists outside CBC TV studios.

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