Vice President George Kunda has reiterated that there will be no extension to the 40 days which was prescribed by Parliament for receiving comments from the members of the public on the draft constitution.

Mr. Kunda said since the 40 days time frame to receive comments from the public was made by Parliament, it can only be changed if it is taken to the House again.

He explained that Government and the members of the public were in a hurry to have a new constitution in place hence Parliament prescribed only 40 days to allow the general public to comment on the draft constitution.

The Vice President said 40 days was deemed enough for people to make their comments on the draft constitution, adding that the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) has been publishing the draft in newspapers in order for everyone to access it.
Mr. Kunda was speaking in Parliament Friday during his 30 minutes question time session.

This was in response to a question raised by Katuba Member of Parliament Jonas Shakafuswa (MMD), who wanted to know whether there will be an extension to the 40 days long period, set for people to study the draft constitution and make comments.

Mr. Shakafuswa’s question comes against the backdrop of the late arrival of copies of the draft constitution in some areas in the country.

He said in some areas of Chibombo district, the draft constitution was only received yesterday, which is over two weeks after the draft constitution was launched to allow the public to comment on it.

Mr. Kunda said the process of constitution making by the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) must come to an end by August 31st, this year hence there was no likelihood that the period for commenting on the document will be extended.
“There will be no extension to the 40 days. We need to conclude this process,” he told Parliament.

On 22nd June 2010, NCC Chairperson, Chifumu Banda, launched the initial report of the conference and the draft constitution which the conference adopted and called on the members of the general public to access the documents from District Commissioners’ offices, the NCC Secretariat or buy copies from Government Printers.

Mr. Banda also said the documents could be accessed on www.governance.gov.zm, www.parliament.gov.zm or on www.ncczambia.org. The 40 days period expires on August 1st, 2010.

In another development, Mr. Kunda said Parliament will decide on which constituencies will be divided into two. He said some constituencies, including his, were too big to properly be managed by one Member of Parliament.

He said there was already a proposal in the NCC to increase the number of constituencies but noted that the plans to delimitate some constituencies may be hampered by limited resources and space in the Parliament chamber.

ZANIS

Kafulafuta Member of Parliament (MP) George Mpombo has vowed that no one will force him out of the ruling MMD for holding divergent views contrary to those of the party’s supreme body the National Executive Committee (NEC).

Mr Mpombo who is former defence minister said no MMD NEC member has any basis to hound him out of the ruling party.

He said all the statements he has been issuing are based on pertinent developmental issues which are clear to the Zambians.

The Kafulafuta MP added that the issues he has been raising are critical to the sustainability of the ruling MMD.

Mr.Mpombo said the failure by the NEC to appreciate his statements has exposed the ruling party’s intolerance to divergent views.

He has since vowed not to leave the ruling MMD regardless of the decision of the party’s NEC would make against him.
[ QFM ]

Opposition Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Sata has challenged government to tell the nation who it is trying to protect through weakening the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) Act by removing the abuse of office clause from the Act.

Mr Sata warned that even if government succeeds in removing the clause from the ACC Act, there are other laws that will be used to catch up with those who are abusing their offices in the current government.

Mr. Sata said the ruling party should tell the Zambians why it wants to remove the clause from the ACC Act if it is not meant to protect those in government once they leave office.

He said the move by government to remove the abuse of office clause from the ACC Act would dilute the fight against corruption.

Mr Sata stated that government should make Zambians understand the reason why they should not question its decision to review the ACC Act.

Government is reported to have removed the abuse of office clause from the revised Anti Corruption Commission Act which it will present to parliament.
[ QFM ]

The Lusaka High Court will next Monday hear a case in which the MMD has petitioned the Mufumbwe by-election won by the United Party for National Development (UPND).

The matter came up yesterday before Judge Philip Musonda but it could not proceed because lawyers raised preliminary issues in chambers.

The court heard that the lawyers in the case had not adequately exchanged documents for the case to go ahead.

The court set July 12, 2010 as the date for hearing of the petition.

The MMD, through its losing candidate, Mulondwe Muzungu wants the court to nullify the poll results and declare that UPND’s candidate Elliot Kamondo was not duly elected.
[ Times of Zambia ]

The Governments of the Republic of Zambia and of Federal Republic of Brazil have signed eight agreements and two memoranda of understanding to enhance cooperation between the two countries.

During the signing ceremony at State House this morning, the two countries signed the MoU on Food and Nutritional Security and Humanitarian Assistance aimed at implementing a project called ‘Zero Hunger Zambia’.

The MoU will involve the two countries and the World Food Programme, where Brazil contributes 200, 000 US dollars.

The Second MoU in the Field of Sports will focus on support and promotion of sports, exchange of technical visits, courses, seminars, conferences and other matters related to sports administration.

The other agreement which the two countries has signed is in the field of biofuels, which will focus on building capacity and sharing experience regarding the production of change of biofuels from renewable bio mass and other non fuel raw materials.

[pullquote]The two countries also signed the Visa exemption which will allow nationals from both Zambia and Brazil exempted from Visa requirements to enter and leave the territory of the two nations for a period not exceeding 90 days.[/pullquote]

Other agreements include the vocational training which will focus on training technical skills, the health agreement which will focus on training of capacity building for health professionals, and the complementary agreement under the health sector agreement.

Others include the culture cooperation agreement aimed at enhancing mutual awareness between the two countries, the Education agreement which will focus on the exchange of scholars to do under graduate and post graduate courses between the two countries.

The two countries also signed the Visa exemption which will allow nationals from both Zambia and Brazil exempted from Visa requirements to enter and leave the territory of the two nations for a period not exceeding 90 days.

The last agreement was on the remuneration activities by dependants of diplomatic staff.

Foreign Affairs Minister Kabinga Pande signed on behalf of the Zambian government, while Celso Amorin, Brazilian International relations Minister signed on behalf of Brazil.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by president Rupiah Banda and his visiting Brazilian counterpart Lula da Silva.

[QFM]

Operation Young Vote (OYV) has expressed delight at the number of young people who have shown interest in registering as voters in the on going voter registration exercise. OYV President Guess Nyirenda said a number of young people have been flocking to various registration centers to register as voters since the exercise begun last month.

Mr. Nyirenda told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka on Wednesday that this is a good indication for the young people interested in acquiring voters cards.
He also said the decision by the Zambian Police to abolish the fees in acquiring police report for those who lost the voters cards would also encourage more people acquire the voter’s cards.

Mr. Nyirenda has meanwhile appealed to the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to intensify publicity of the exercise for more people to register.
He said although the response especially from Lusaka has been good, many people were still not aware of the registration exercise in their areas due to lack of publicity.

He added that a number of people have complained over lack of sensitisation and called on ECZ to make their presence known in respective centres.
“The voter registration exercise has been well received by the majority the only problem is that there is little information on the part of ECZ to inform the people in the various wards of where the exercise is been conducted. So if ECZ could intensity their publicity it is likely that there will be high turnout” he said.

Mr. Nyirenda has also called on cooperating partners to help ECZ with funds to do more sensitisation on the exercise.

He has meanwhile disclosed that his organisation is conducting road shows and media sensitisation programmes to people on the on going exercise.
Over 11,000 people had by last week registered as voters in the on-going voter registration exercise in Lusaka .

ZANIS