Opposition United Party for National Development (UPND)
President Hakainde Hichilema has called on Zambians to combine efforts if the fight for a new constitution has to be won.
Mr. Hichilema said Zambians should have a unity of purpose, if they are to contribute positively towards the country’s constitution making process.
The UPND leader was speaking in Lusaka today at a stakeholders’ consultative meeting organised by the Oasis Forum, a civil society grouping in the country.
He said Zambia needs a new constitution that will provide a solid platform for the country¨s economic and social development.
Mr. Hichilema stressed that the issue of a new constitution should not be used as a political tool but should be regarded as a conerstone in alleviating the nation’s social ills.
He said people are tired of Government’s promises that it is committed to the enactment of the new constitution, when its new road map was open ended.
He said that he and his party members strongly supported the cause for the adoption of the new constitution through the Constituent Assembly in the shortest possible time.
And a group of students from the Copperbelt University calling themselves the CC-2008 demanded the adoption of a new constitution by June 2008.
In their submission the student body also demanded that the Constituent Assembly should be put in place and must be given a legal effect by the National Assembly before the end of July this year.
The students submitted that the National Assembly must reconvene before the end of May specifically to enact the Constituent Assembly Bill into Law.
The Oasis Forum has devised a ten- point constitutional road map, which has a time frame of 71 weeks for the adoption of a new constitution.
ZANIS
