Parliament must give Zambians a new constitution this year – YALI

THE Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) has set a minimum call in 2015 for Parliament to give the Zambian people a good and progressive constitution based on the Final Draft Constitution submitted by the Technical Committee whose content need to be cleaned up and contentious issues subjected to consensus before Government takes the Constitution of Zambia Bill to Parliament for enactment.

In a media statement released by YALI Governance Advisor, Isaac Mwanza, YALI has stated that the organisation recognises that the people of Zambian have been calling for enactment of a constitution that can stand the test of time but stated that certain elite groups have limited the concept of a constitution that “stands the test of time” to a process that is subject to enactment through a national referendum only which YALI says is like proverbial ostriches who, for so long, have been burying heads in the sand.

YALI states that the major issue that has beclouded the judgment of many elite groups who have set the national referendum as a minimum in coming up with a good Constitution of Zambia is the need to expand the Bill of Rights and make these rights justiciable through litigation in the proposed Constitutional Court.
He said YALI affirms that expanding the Bill of Rights is top of priorities. Mr. Mwanza has stated that the remaining timeframe between January 21, 2015 and 2016 is short because Zambia will go to a general election in 2016. He said processes of completing tasks that require the holding of a successful referendum in which “not less than fifty per cent of persons entitled to be registered as voters for the purposes of Presidential and parliamentary elections” must take part in voting is impractical and holding such a referendum may only result in the failure of a referendum as the continued voter apathy will affect in not achieving the required 50% of persons entitled to vote.

YALI has since proposed two interventions for a new Constitution that stands the test of time which also include expansion of the Bill of Rights

“YALI proposes that the reform and enactment process be done in 2 stages, one where Parliament must in 2015 enact all progressive clauses in the Constitution through thorough amendments and another where citizens will be accorded an opportunity to vote on expanding the Bill of Rights during the referendum held alongside the 2016 General Elections or shortly thereafter which amendment can be done after after the elections or in 2017. This will save many Zambians the fatigue of going to three national polls within the period of 1 year 6 months and will help minimise the usage of little resources the country has.”

The organisation organisation has since cautioned all stakeholders and elite groups wanting to hold or fund the referendum on the whole Constitution where a minimum of 50% of persons entitled to be registered as voters must take place to reflect on the possibility of failure and wastage of resources stating that politicians “would be happy with the failure of such hastily organised Referendum as it would make them to continue using the 1996 Constitution that is wanting in so many areas and grant them excessive powers.”

YALI has since reminded the Zambian people that even the American Constitution, one of the world’s most celebrated Constitution, has stood the test of time despite the fact that when it came into operation March 4, 1789, it had no Bill Rights which was only introduced 2 years later when the Bill of Rights was ratified on December 15, 1791. YALI has categoritically stated thag it is misguided thinking to state that a Constitution can only ‘stand the test of time’ if it is only subjected to a referendum, has a Bill of Rights from the beginning or has no further amendments. By May 7, 1992, the American Constitution had 27 Amendments that started on December 15, 1791