The United Party for National Development (UPND), through its 2021 – 2026 Manifesto on page 34, committed to establish a durable constitutional order that would catalyse the political, economic and social development of the country.
On the same page, the UPND committed to complete the constitutional reform agenda, anchored on a broad-based consensus among all Zambians.
In line with the commitment that the Party made, in black and white, five years ago, the Government of the Republic of Zambia has commenced constitutional reforms with the release of immediate areas that need to be amended in the Constitution of the Republic of Zambia.
Thirteen areas have been identified for revision or refinement in the current Constitution and a roadmap has been circulated to clearly show how the amendment process will unfold.
Unlike the Bill 10 of the Patriotic Front (PF) government, which went into the public domain with specific parameters of amendments already decided, the current process is different.
Under the current process, Government has not specified any numbers on anything. What the Government has done, so far, is to merely identify the areas of concern so that experts and other stakeholders can propose the specifics based on research, expert knowledge and experience, among other things.
At this stage, we expect citizens to give time to the Ministry of Justice to draft the Bill that will spell out the specific parameters of the Constitutional amendments.
The draft Bill will be made public so that citizens can see for themselves the specific amendments and debate from an informed position.
We urge citizens not to be swayed but to keep an eye on the process so that at an opportune time they will be able to contribute to the process from an informed position.
We also urge citizens not to compare the current Constitution amendment process to Bill 10 of the PF, as doing so is tantamount to comparing a stillborn baby to a baby still developing in the mother’s womb.
Joseph Lungu
SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR POLICY AND COMPLIANCE
The UPND should imagine itself in the opposition and whether such amendments would serve them well. Even with some progressive proposals therein, this exercise is a vote loser at this time and would be better dealt with after elections.
Why rush the constitution amendments? What is the interest? Why not focus on economic challenges citizens are facing and channel the resources they want to use for the constitution to the challenges?. This is exactly what happened to the of when they forced the bill 10 to the people and they lost. The same way it will be.
“as doing so is tantamount to comparing a stillborn baby to a baby still developing in the mother’s womb.”
WHAT AN ANALOGY ???
Everyone has their own explanation of the constitution with one telling us that the amendment will lower the cost of living…. how? Only herself knows. Please just abandon this project.
This bouquet of good, bad, and ghastly legislation is a well-worn practice of political parties including Bill 10 machinations under the PF. As observed by a number of stakeholders, the so-called appointed MPs insertion there is the killer punch that this particular party wants to sneak in in order to ride rough-shod over the unsuspecting citizens; it is, however, so blatant that it mocks the citizenry into an impression of a clearly ignorant lot. This more than anything else is what will make this amendment set of propositions dead in the water…
No one is interested in amending the constitution except HH himself.
He has failed to fix the economy now he wants to fail at the constitution amendment as well.
The man is a failure.
Fixing the constitution is not a priority.
People like Pastor Nevers are paid to be cadres of the UPND.
Special assistant, can you please sort out issues that matter first before talking about constitution. Here in PHI/Mtendere we don’t have ZESCO power the whole day, and it’s going to 21hrs now, even when it comes now, how does it help us. Was our voting for UPND a wasted one. We cannot continue like this
ZESCO is just a missed call, even their 7 hour promise is fake and fraudulent. And those consumer protection organisations are as sleep as ever before