United Party for National Development (UPND) Chairman for legal affairs and leader of the opposition in parliament Jack Mwiimbu says the levels of ignorance on constitutional making among senior PF officials is appalling and needs to be addressed for the sake of national development.
And Mr.Mwiimbu who is also Monze Central Member of Parliament has revealed that officials under the National Registration Department in most districts of southern, western and Central have been recalled from their satellite centres following the collapse of Bill 10 in Parliament.
Addressing the media this morning, Mr Mwiimbu said it was unfortunate that Justice Minister Given Lubinda and Chief Government Whip Brian Mundubile were attempting to share their ignorance on matters of the constitution with Zambians who have rejected the infamous Bill 10 by alleging that the fall of the Bill means Constituencies cannot be delimitated as the process was premised on the constitutional amendments.
“The levels of ignorance by Justice Minister Given Lubinda and Chief Whip Brian Mundubile who purports to be a lawyer is alarming. Article 58 of the constitution provides guidelines under which Constituencies can be delimitated unlike the hallucinations being peddled by the PF. In 2016, an additional 6 constituencies were created using the current constitution without Bill 10. ECZ only has to bring a bill to parliament requesting the amendment of article 58 and we are good to go. Let Lubinda and Mundubile not share their ignorance with Zambians”, he said.
He further added that the PF has no moral right to describe the UPND as acting irresponsibly on Bill 10 as the party while in the opposition did walk out on the 2010 constitutional amendment Bill and had the audacity to expel 22 of its MPs who remained in the house and voted for the Bill.
Mr.Mwiimbu said the 2010 walkout was led by Given Lubinda who today wants to cry the loudest, adding that the UPND’s move was supported by the people of Zambia who included the three church mother bodies, labor movement, Law Association, and other progressive Zambians who want to see the development of democracy in the country.
“The Ministry of Health has provided guidelines on the number of days one can mourn in view of the Covid pandemic and the maximum is 3 days. It has now been 5 days since the demise of Bill 10 but the PF is still mourning contrary to its own guidelines. What is the problem with them? As UPND, we would have had no problems had the PF spent all these many days mourning the ailing economy that has brought everything to a standstill. Maybe we would have joined them in mourning but not weeping with tears rolling the demise of a Bill which was brought in dead”, Mr. Mwiimbu added.
He also wondered whether the appointment of five youths and women into Parliament would have changed or improved the condition of living for the millions of youths on the streets without tangible means of survival and the over 200,000 graduates that have remained unemployed in the country.
On the mixed proportional representation in Parliament, the leader of the opposition in Parliament said the manner in which Bill 10 wanted to implement this law would not have helped matters but should have instead used the Ugandan and Rwandan methods which leaves certain constituencies to be competed by women only.
On the 14 days of the Presidential petition for 2021, Mr. Mwiimbu said the UPND will have no need to petition the election results as it would have won the elections and will remain up to the PF to petition using the 2016 amended constitution.
The constitutional amendment Bill number 10 of 2019 could not go through second reading on the floor of the house last Thursday as it failed to ganner the required two thirds of the majority in Parliament.
The Bill only managed 105 instead of the required 111 votes.
Jack Mwimbu how did you fail to present evidence on the last Presidential election petition of your boss.You are the last person to air your views on matters of this nature and my advice to HH next he should hire other lawyers if at all he wants to win cases
Start being wise, that’s why you are loosing on bill 10. instead of looking at the content the person is expounding you are looking at the person. Infact you are not even supposed to be blooging you PF chaps, you should be looking at how you can sort out the kwacha which is rushing to K25 to a dollar, you don’t have the luxury of time, after wasting everybodys time with your bill 10 loopholed focus
I am not a lawyer but if UPND want to increase the number of constituencies, which is already embedded in the Constitution, you will still need a two thirds majority in parliament for such a bill to pass through second reading. And since this will require a private member’s motion from the opposition, do you honestly think PF members will support such a motion after the failure of bill 10.
It is all good.
Correction JM, it NOT the people of Zambia who rejected Bill 10 but UPND MPs. Zambians did not vote. I don’t remember voting. I don’t know how you have synchronised that bill 10 was rejected by Zambia because PF are Zambians and they didn’t reject it. So JM which Zambian are talking about?
Start understanding democracy, you lost the bill using a very democratic process. The people of Zambia speak through MPs, and they spoke through parliament that they don’t want bill 10. If the people of Zambia had wanted bill 10, it would have reflected through bill 10 going through in parliament. So stop confusing yourselves please
How many days have these cretins declared a national mourning for bill 10? Kikikikiki. Mind you, people talk without speaking.
What are new constituencies for? The country is broke. Expanding the size of parliament requires more tax revenues.
Awe muli.bakopo batata imwe, you now being haunted na bill.10 mwakene, muzamuziba yesu.
Now we hear the PF has written to the 3 MPs who did not vote for bill 10 in parliament to exculpate themselves, I hope the speaker will protect these guys because they are supposed to vote with their conscious and not what the party says, so assuming these 3 were to debate the bill, they should have been debating in favour of what they did not believe in. If the UPND MPs follow instructions to walk out of parliament they are condemned that they are following party interests instead of national interest, so for PF there is no national interest, the MPs should just vote for what the party wants. Very autocratic party. Most of the issues did not need bill 10 including the public order act, they can be amended on their own
Jack Mwimbu and that other chap who cant count from 1 to 10 are hopeless lawyers who cant count from 1 to 14 days and are the ones President Sata referred to never to engage them even if you killed a fly and you are sued for it. Very useless.
The boy cannot even keep a marriage sure. Bunda bwabu chongolo nensoni iyo.
Thanks honourable for clarifying issues. Imagine the nation being misled that the youth, the disabled and the women cannot participate in anything now because bill 10 is gone, and yet the current constitution still offers the youths, the disabled and the women all the powers to participate at any level they so wish. Out of the entire bill 10 they are only quoting two clauses, They are not even mentioning the poison they had fused into bill 10. Let them continue mourning
What ever was in this bill 10 which they are crying about must have been so massive, they have even started harrasing their own MPs now
Instead of crying over extremely unacceptably high un employment levels and how to solve these critical issues they are crying over the loss of bill 10 because of the interests of one man only. What type of people are these kanshi mwebanthu.
Why are PF MPs being disciplined for carrying out instructions from their constituents to abstain from voting for bill 10. What is the offence here. These MPs are representing people and not a party, yes they belong to a party but the mandate they carry is from the people.
Some one will cry again when results are announced next year. Can this please be put in writing that upnd won’t run to the courts when they lose for another record time.
Nobody will cry, people will be vigilant this time around with making sure votes are secured and not tampered with
Now bill 10 is gone. We are going for campaigns come 2021. Permits to hold rallies will be required, UPND are cerebrating that they have defeated bill 10. Now we shall know the real loser when police refuse to issue campaign permits by using the public order act effectively to the advantage of PF.
One cretin above; no one needs a permit from the police to go and campaign iwe mumbwee. You just need to notify them chapwaa waumfwa iwe ngwelee…!
PF Kuwayawaya fye, I joined the opposition immediately after the loss of Bill 10,that signal was enough to guide on future events
We have heard enough about bill 10. Let’s move to another topic. I suggest we start looking at MPs that have been in power for 2 decades. Should we allow them do quarter a century. Hope ALL of them are not contesting this time around. Surely 25 years as MP should not be tolerated at all esp that it would be 4 times ECL ‘s stay of 6 years who are objecting today.
He may be right in that we need a dundumwezi in eastern. Upnd supporters are lame and losers.
So JM thinks upnd can win elections with hh? My broda you are dreaming in daylight, upnd loss in 2021 will be so devastating. 2021 will be the easiest elections pf will ever contest in the history of this country!
Most of us are not lawyers but sadly this government led by a lawyer and with lawyers in government as well as in parliament has proved to be the most unlawful ever. I am convinced that Jameson damaged half of the brains. The way Lungu has governed the country is extraordinarily pathetic. Julius Malema says that the job of the President is the easiest in the world. All he has to do is to choose the right people. Unfortunately, that has proved impossible for Mr Lungu. There are very few people to choose from in Chawama. As for the others, he is afraid that they would challenge him (HIS OWN WORDS). So he chose an aged woman as Vice President.
In 2021,we shall see who will cry between PF and UPND!!Looking at how things stand currently,i have no single doubt that it is Jack Mwiimbu and his regional party UPND who will cry over POA,14 petition days,etc in 2021.Presently,UPND is damn weak!!
MANY ZAMBIANS CANNOT WAIT TO SEE TEARS DROPING FROM SEASONAL POLITICAL LOSERS CAMPED IN UPND IN 2021!!!
We don’t need any more constituencies. 125 are enough for a population of less than 20 million. There are enough thieves in Parliament robbing us everyday, We don’t need DCs either.
What a bunch of i.d.!0ts this Mwiimbu and his upnd donkeys!!! So why didn’t you present those arguments in parliament on behalf of the people who voted for you???
Ili lyena libange.
This theme was one of the items in bill10.
Isn’t a delimitation factor a constitutional matter.
When you make and amend laws, you dont make them for upndead. That’s being selfish dull mwimbu.
Let’s walk out’a of parley go to kleptoh²’s house and dance and drink and merry and toast and celebrate and jive.
Just concentrate on preping for 2021.
No talk about POA.
Let it haunt you.
What’s the use of parliament if you niggaz will walk out and abstain.
Can a Free Mason vote for a country to be a Christian Nation, or allow that to be put in the constitution? That’s the only part JM remained silent on in his explanation above, how there voting down of bill 10 will impact Zambia as a Christian Nation. They know exactly what they want.
Muchinga Province was created without Bill 10; more districts are being created without Bill 10. What is so special with creation of constituencies where PF is alleging that can not be done without Bill 10? Have we not been creating constituencies in the past? We used to have about 150 constituencies and now we have about 156. How did we create the extra constituencies! Mr Lungu is a good man. Unfortunately he has useless people around him.
These Tongas never cease to amaze me. First of all who told them that they are forming government next year? You dont count chicks before they are hatched. What Tongas should know is UPND is a party basically based on one Tribal for its survival, and for that matter a minority tribe. So how can a minority tribe rule 72 tribes of Zambia. And your Hichilema is up for revenge! Surely, what rule can Hichilema put up by side lining the biggest tribe in Zambia, the Bembas? Unless you want to put Zambia on fire! So forget about winning next year or any time in the near future. Economy is bad YES, but UPND and your Hichilema are not the alternative! PF and Edgar will continue because theres no alternative!
Zambia Lookout- That Freemason song is an old and scratched record. Zambia has been ruled by FMs before. The first cabinet had them. So, just drop it and move on.
Mr Mwimbu, we thought we are discussing issues that affect our great nation. But from your responses it does not matter as long as UPND has no interest in it check out your response on 14 days petition period ” Because UPND will win then there is no need for 14 days” is there any doubt why this political party is history until the current crop of opposition leaders is replaced. These guys are just spent forces.
Manganga, to hell with your tribalism. HH is not a tribalist like you. UPND doesnt use nor believe in treating voters based on their tribe. So in your narrow tribal view, only people from so called major tribes can vie for the position of president of Zambia? Who told you that HH would sideline any tribe in Zambia? What evidence do you have to back your tribal venom? There are many decent Zambians who dont agree that electing HH would put Zambia on fire. It is you and your fellow tribalists who are making noise which would put Zambia on fire. You are so naive to think there are no alternatives to PF and Edgar in a country of 18 million citizens? Dunderhead!!
@ Manganga your posting is very dangerous to our mother Zambia .You people you you cant debate issues without bringing in tribe. In Zambia there in no majority either minority tribe we are all Zambian. Myself I am a Bemba and I hate people demonising other tribes. There is no good or bad tribe it depends the way you conduct yourself. When it comes to who to rule the country lets not look at which tribe but who is he to rule if Garry Nkombo is capable of rulling the country let him do so if we see that Kambwili is not capable to rule the country vote against him. We can not be risking ourselves by voting for some one because he is from a certain tribe even if he is useless.
Lufubu is a constituency of the National Assembly of Zambia. It covers a large rural area in the Ngabwe District of Central Province,It was created in 2016.
WE USED TO HAVE 150 CONSTITUENCIES NOW THEY ARE 156, HOW DID THE 6 COME ABOUT MINUS BILL 10? ACTUALLY THIS LUFUBU CONSTITUENCY IS UNDER A PF MP, SO THE 2016 CONSTITUTION ALLOWS THE CREATION OF NEW CONSTITUENCIES.
Chenda busiku, please dont quote JM wrongly. What JM said according to the article is “On the 14 days of the Presidential petition for 2021, Mr. Mwiimbu said the UPND will have no need to petition the election results as it would have won the elections and will remain up to the PF to petition using the 2016 amended constitution.” So the reason UPND will not use the 14 days of presidential petition according to JM is that UPND would have won the elections. Why should UPND use 14 days if and when they win the 2021 elections? JM didnot say what UPND would do in case they dont win the 2021 elections. JM is confident that UPND will win the 2021 elections. You are free to argue with him on his confidence if you want.
Yes the bill did not go anywhere because people are fed up of the ruling pf wait and see muzamuziba yesu chino chaka
Removal of the 14 days is not being proposed with PF or UPND in mind; others who will come in future will definitely need it. Remember that apart from the 1991 FTJ/KK elections, all of them have been petitioned for one reason or another.
As UPND we won the 2016 elections . We had all the proof to present to the Court but we were let down by our lawyers. We were misled to believe we had very competent lawyers on the constitution . As UPND members we were very dissapointed with the lawyers . By this time we would have been in power and HH in state house. The same lawyers have started misleading us AGAIN…. mmmm . HH must be careful this time. Let this liars go and defend Mucheleka in Kasama….but please HH do not bring JM and team near the constitution court.
Some idi.ot said hh and upnd are not tribalist, throw back just look at the party after the collapse of bill 10 the people invited, Can upnd make public the list and names of people on their structures! We know your hidden agenda of removing the declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation, The stu.pid freema.sonry posted asking someone what benefit the Christian nation has! And to say that the tag Christian nation is a danger to investors is laughable. We know homosexuality, gay rights keeps ringing in your heads because you are part of that sata.nic group .