By Henry Kyambalesa
In a news article entitled “RB Should Be Left to Decide Election Date,” which appeared in the Lusaka Times of 12th May 2011, comrade Ronnie Shikapwasha was quoted as having said that there was nothing wrong with President Rupiah Banda’s delay in announcing the polling date, and that he should be left alone to decide as the President has every right to do so. He was further quoted as having said that those calling for early polls are doing it out of ignorance and are not following the constitution as it states that the country’s leader has the power to announce the election date at whatever time he feels the nation is ready.
Well, I have thus far combed through the 1996 Republican constitution for an Article or Clause which gives President Banda the “constitutional right” to decide on, and announce, the date for the general elections, but have not found any!
For the benefit of those who do not have time to skim through the 1996 Republican constitution, here is a summary of the functions of the Republican president which are stipulated in the constitution:
Article 29(1): The President may, in consultation with Cabinet, at any time, by Proclamation published in the Gazette, declare war.
Article 30(1): The President may, in consultation with Cabinet, at any time, by Proclamation published in the Gazette, declare a State of emergency.
Article 33(1): The President is the Head of State and of the Government, and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Force. (2) The executive power of the Republic of Zambia vests in the President and, subject to the other provisions of this Constitution, shall be exercised by him or her either directly or through officers subordinate to him or her.
Article 44(1): As the Head of the State, the President shall perform with dignity and leadership all acts necessary or expedient for, or reasonably incidental to, the discharge of the executive functions of government subject to the overriding terms of this Constitution and the Laws of Zambia which he or she is constitutionally obliged to protect, administer and execute.
Article 44(2): Without prejudice to the generality of clause (1), the President shall preside over meetings of the Cabinet and shall have the power, subject to this Constitution to —
(a) Dissolve the National Assembly as provided in Article 88;
(b) Accredit, receive and recognize ambassadors, and to appoint ambassadors, plenipotentiaries, diplomatic representatives and consuls;
(c) Pardon or reprieve offenders, either unconditionally or subject to such conditions as he may consider fit;
(d) Negotiate and sign international agreements and to delegate the power to do so;
(e) Establish and dissolve such Government Ministries and Departments subject to the approval of the National Assembly;
(f) Confer such honors as he considers appropriate on citizens, residents and friends of Zambia in consultation with interested and relevant persons and institutions; and
(g) Appoint such persons as are required by this Constitution or any other law to be appointed by him or her.
Article 44(3): Subject to the provisions of this Constitution dealing with assent to laws passed by Parliament and the promulgation and publication of such laws in the Gazette, the President shall have power to —
(a) Sign and promulgate any proclamation which by law he or she is entitled to proclaim as President; and
(b) Initiate, in so far as he or she considers it necessary and expedient, laws for submission and consideration by the National Assembly.
Article 45(2): The Vice-President shall be appointed by the President from among the members of the National Assembly.
Article 46(1): There shall be such Ministers as may be appointed by the President.
Article 47(1): The President may appoint such Deputy Ministers as he or she may consider necessary to assist Ministers in the performance of their functions and to exercise or perform on behalf of Ministers such of the Ministers’ functions as the President may authorize in that behalf.
Article 53(1): There shall be a Secretary to the Cabinet whose office shall be a public office and who shall, subject to ratification by the National Assembly, be appointed by the President.
Article 54(1): There shall be an Attorney-General of the Republic who shall, subject to ratification by the National Assembly, be appointed by the President.
Article 55(1): There shall be a Solicitor-General of the Republic whose office shall be a public office and who shall, subject to ratification by the National Assembly, be appointed by the President.
Article 56(1): There shall be a Director of Public Prosecutions and who shall, subject to ratification by the National Assembly, be appointed by the President.
Article 68(1): The President may, at any time after a general election to the National Assembly and before the National Assembly is next dissolved, appoint such number of persons as he or she considers necessary to enhance the representation of the National Assembly as regards special interests or skills, to be nominated members of the National Assembly, so, however, that there are not more than eight such members at any one time.
Article 88(3): The President may at any time summon a meeting of the National Assembly.
Article 90(1): There shall be an Investigator-General of the Republic who shall be appointed by the President in consultation with the Judicial Service Commission and shall be the Chairman of the Commission for Investigations.
Article 95(1): The puisne judges shall, subject to ratification by the National Assembly, be appointed by the President on the advice of the Judicial Service Commission. (2) The Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Industrial Relations Court shall be appointed by the President on the advice of the Judicial Service Commission.
Article 121(1): There shall be an Auditor-General for the Republic whose office shall be a public office and who shall, subject to ratification by the National Assembly, be appointed by the President.
There are, of course, unwritten presidential functions, and functions prescribed in subsidiary pieces of legislation, which the Republican president is expected to perform. But with respect to the decision to set and announce the date for tripartite elections, there is a need for a constitutional proviso providing for a specific day or date for holding general elections, as recommended by the National Constitutional Conference (NCC).
In the absence of such a proviso, the setting and announcement of the date for holding general elections should have been the duty of the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), in consultation with an ensemble of leaders of all duly registered political parties.
I do not understand the logic behind the setting and announcement of the date for holding general elections by the Republican president, particularly one whose political party is going to field candidates in the same elections, and one who is presumably going to be a presidential candidate!
The 2nd Republic (between 1972 and 1991) is long gone, when all elective political positions were contested on the UNIP ticket, and when it probably made sense for the Republican president to decide on, and announce, the date for holding general elections. It is high time we shook off some of these old tendencies!
There is also a need for the President to delegate more of his unwritten and legally established functions so that his Ministers can take some of his less-important trips and tasks. As Management gurus would profess, good leaders attain their stipulated goals through the efforts of their subordinates. As such, a leader who spends much of his or her time performing tasks which subordinates are capable of performing is likely to be less effective in discharging his or her duties.
I am often intrigued by what the Holy Bible teaches us on the issue of delegation in Exodus 18:14-22, in which Jethro advised his son-in-law, Moses, as follows:
“Why do you alone sit as judge and all the people stand about you from morning until evening? …. You will surely wear out … select out of all the able men … [and] place these over them, as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens. And let them judge the people at all times; and let it be that every major dispute they will bring to you, but every minor dispute they themselves will judge. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you.”
I, of course, prepare this piece of advice knowing very well that “you can never teach an old dog new tricks,” so to speak.
But delegation of part of one’s work to subordinates can be an effective way of ensuring that work is not postponed until a future time. Also, it can enable a leader to identify effective and resourceful subordinates for promotion and/or retention.
The process of delegation involves four basic steps: (a) determining the tasks that can be delegated without giving up one’s responsibility, and which a given subordinate is capable of accomplishing; (b) assigning the tasks to the subordinate; (c) giving the subordinate the necessary authority and support for accomplishing the tasks; and (d) checking periodically on the progress being made by the subordinate.
And to maintain the independence of institutions like the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC), and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, appointments of directors or chairpersons to run such institutions should preferably be made by independent commissions without the involvement of the Executive branch of the government.
Also, the independence of Parliament could be partly ensured if the Republican president were to constitute his or her Cabinet from the general public rather than from elected or nominated Members of Parliament.
My fellow Zambians, the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) assumed the reins of power nearly 20 years ago, but the socio-economic conditions facing the majority of citizens have continued to worsen during the 3rd Republic the party has been in power. The healthcare system, for example, cannot meet the basic needs of the majority of citizens; tens of thousands of Grade 7 and Grade 9 students have continued to be spilled onto the streets every year; and so many Zambians have no access to clean water and electricity.
Moreover, a critical shortage of decent public housing has compelled so many of our fellow citizens to live in shanty townships nationwide, public infrastructure and services are still deficient, poverty has reached alarming levels, civil servants are still not adequately compensated for their services, and a lot of civil service retirees cannot get their hard-earned benefits.
Besides, taxes and interest rates are still very high, public news outlets have continued to glorify inept government leaders and to demonize and stigmatize opposition political parties and their leaders, and, among many other socio-economic ills, crime and unemployment are still widespread.
Voters who have the interest of our beloved country and its people at heart, therefore, will need to guard themselves against giving the MMD another term of office later this year. There is really nothing meaningful which the party can do over the next 5 years that will address the backlog of unfulfilled promises.
Your president RB & Step-wife Thandiwe look like siting at a Chiefdom chair in Lundazi. Both don’t fit to be at State house they have trashed that plot 1. Look at them, even most headmen looks better.
Henry why did you leave out “The constitutional Right for President to decide on election date, and which party shall win?”
The problem with our presidency is that it is structured in such a way that the president is a micromanager. There is little that can get done without a presidencial go ahead. Case in point: during the NCC deliberations, the degree issue spung up. All Govt officials and chiefs were in support of the clause. Then the president praised Lula Da Silva and suddenly, all voices were emasculated and the issue died a natural death. Case #2, corruption perception. the late was always going on about it, and the common public servant was afraid to blatantly ask you to give him something by the side to process your request, these days, not so much.
The point is, presidential powers need diluting
Henry kyambalesa Vs Dimone sialupwa; Half time, scores 0 : 0 Join us after break for yet another interesting half.
poor analysis…thats the problem when every jim and jack tries to interpret the constitution in their own mother tongue
The election date is fixed in a hidden manner. Whenever the national assembly is dissolved, elections must be held within 90 days.
and we are happy to have such a piece of legislature and i quote
43. (1) Civil proceedings shall not be instituted or continued against the
person holding the office of President or performing the functions of
that office in respect of which relief is claimed against him in respect of
anything done or omitted to be done in his private capacity
(2) A person holding the office of President or performing the functions
of that office shall not be charged with any criminal offence or be
amenable to the criminal jurisdiction of any court in respect of any act
done or omitted to be done during his tenure of that office or, as the case
may be, during his performance of the functions of that office.
there must be a big distinction between the presidency and the president. the human occupying such an office must be seen to be upholding the law and not to break the law knowing that no one will sue me weather in public or private. such draconian laws must go the gutter way
Very educative piece … this is surely necessary to have people know the powers of the people they hope to put into power.
Change of government is necessary this year. The people of Zambia have been taken for a serious ride. We are tired of promises. We really need change … nothing less than that!
I honestly do not see any significant changes taking place in Zambia whoever is going to occupy the hot seat. We need to get the basics right before we can move on to bigger things. For example, my dad left a house in Mtendere and from the time I was a boy we always had to use a pit latrine. That was about 30 years ago and up to now water is from a communal tap and the pit latrine has been buried and a new one dug next to it. These leaders are all a chip of the old block and as the saying goes “You cannot teach an old dog new tricks”. We need to understand that this is the information age and you need good and reliable information in order to plan and make better decisions. Do I hear or see the current crop of leaders moving with the times? NAY!
YOU HAVE BORED MY READING DAY BWANA.IN THIS CASE RB IS GUIDED BY PAST TRADITION BY HIS PREVIOUS PRESIDENTS.PLEASE JUST CAMPAIGN FOR YOUR CANDIDATE. DON’T WASTE TIME. RB CAN PULL A FAST ONE.
The campaigns have started despite announcing the elections. All are acting illegally. Who is complaining about this. Wait until the data is set. MMD go ahead let the date be an issue for those who would love to give excuses. My advice however, is that MMD stop using Govt. resourves. Otherwise I love RB he has done so much in short time. Everyone knows even those who have turned black eyes and deafened their ears sorry for you
We all know about the functions of the president in Zambia and there was no need at all for Mr Kyambalesa to copy and paste these functions on this site. For all I know, all presidents in Zambia have done nothing but excrete excrement on these functions of their office. With Chiluba, you could easily include murder, extortion and plunder. One wonder why Zambians send devils to wield power in their corridors of state and watch these forthcoming polls, lucifer himself, complete even by name is coming to town, to collect. We have gone full circle, uno mwaka ni lwakwa Noah, lekeni lunye nomba tata.
Please the election date revolves around the dissolution of parliament..so dont give us a selective malaise of what you feel the powers of the president ought to be..for now he holds the key in consultation with the Electoral Commission……so he is not offside..this is another Chitala/Mulongoti sponsered dump….
The powers of the president need to be clipped as the president has too much excessive power that can be easily abused.RB might be restrained a bit but there’s no telling if the next occupant might be like Museveni shamelessly flooding important posts with relatives or a Mugabe acting as if he is the law.It is also important to do like in kenya where a panel publicly question you on past appointments to ensure your competence & independence keeps you there & not your close personal loyalty to the president.
Powers of the president in Zambha are just ton much nowonder our leaders are small gods in their own way. Let’s remove Mwalya Mweka Dollar (MMD) From Power. All opposition Parties should unite 4 change.
The current constitution is a one party constitution written with a wamuyaya president in mind, with piece meal amendments here and there. The entire document needs to be re-done.
The terms of reference for President are very easy..I must run for presdiency 2016 check me out, thats kaponyas like SATA can still manage the country let alone willie Nsanda, GBM etc i wsh their could be such duties like the “President shall preside over all engineering projects in terms of checking the adequacy of design,prove to the cabinet using mathematical tools such as FFT (fast fourier transforms), nano technology and so on. He shall present on PPT to justfy such designs and techologies. I think i will participate in the constitutionla process when SATA is in office so we can bring some technicalities in the presidency. sha.
NO..15 JK …you have made my day ..MMD (Mwalya Mweka Dollar) ahahahahahahaha..any more definitions for other parties?????????????
for the benefit of those that may not know kyambalesa, he is/was a lecturer at unza, in other words he is supposed to be an intellectual, not “any other person” like you and me but is he?
“Electoral Act No.12 of 2006
PART IV
DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT, ELECTION
ACTIVITIES AND MATERIALS
25. (1) Subject to subsection (2), whenever the
President proclaims the dissolution of Parliament in
accordance with the Constitution, the President shall, by
statutory instrument prescribe the date of the polling day
for a general election.
(2) The President, when determining the polling day
under subsection (1), shall not set a date later than ninety
days from the date of the dissolution of Parliament.”
pf cadres and your kyambalesa, please keep sh.it to yourselves, (sorry for my language).
Ba Polofesa Kyambalesa, mama ine!
You are not a Lawyer so stay away from trying to read law. The Electoral Commission Act is read together with the instruments you have cited. The President dissolves Parliament when he wills and when Parliament is dissolved, all MPs lose their seats and when there is a vacancy, elections must be held within 90 days. Simple. The President does NOT call elections. It is the Electoral Commission that does that.
According to DNA test carried on the government spokesman’s big nose he is not Zambian as it has been proved that the people of zed have very good breathing gadgets this man seems to have dropped from out of space, we are calling on the navy seals to come and take him out!
all hullaballoo by kyambalesa and his fellow pf cadres on the need to cut the powers of the president of zambia, but they don’t see the contradiction that their leader michael chilufya sata remains an unelected “president” of pf since 2001 and that therefore he cannot practice democracy in a bigger role of republican president. in order to understand non.sense, you have to be pf !!!!
GEORGE Mpombo says the thunderous welcome accorded to Michael Sata in Western Province is an indicator that the revolutionary mood is unstoppable and that PF will form government this year.
And Mpombo, an MMD member of parliament for Kafulafuta Constituency, says President Rupiah Banda does not mind losing this year’s elections because he has economically rehabilitated himself from his poverty days at the farm.
Commenting on Sata’s visit to Western Province last weekend where he held a campaign meetings attended by thousands of locals, Mpombo said the electrifying visit and successful rallies were a clear indication that PF has crossed the political rubicon and Sata is within striking range of Presidency.
Ba Mpombo, the man is not yet even in State House and you are already bootlicking him by showering him with praise over Sata’s western province tour! For a start, Sata did not pay a courtesy call on the paramount leader of western province, the Litunga himself. This is totally against the normal etiquette required when political leaders visit a chiefdom. This simply shows a lack of respect for traditional leaders! Thunderous welcome you say. Well, this has happened before. Lets just say never judge a book (voting) by its cover (large crowds), and historically speaking, history has a way of repeating itself. For Sata, history has repeated itself 3 times, 2001, 2006 and 2008. Should we say more?
@ no# 1 Selako Ntambe Lundazi is a beautiful and blessed land. Producing rice and ground nuts to feed our beloved Zambia. Plus Thandiwe is beautiful and homely. Blessed be Zambia, let us follow our Lord God Jehovah; rebuilding our nation with intelligence and God’s wisdom. greetings all my Zambian family.
@24 Zero Boyz
RB won the election by a handful of votes, is it 30,000. So, I am surprised at baMpombo’s words because according to the Post in 2008, Sata had massive rallies. Do you remember when Mpombo and Kunda in Parliament accused the Post of ‘copy and pasting the crowds?’ Now that Mpombo is outside he accepts that the vrowds are real. If they are real, Sata will win if all the 30,000 voters come from WP. WP has a very small population. Right now Sata’s grip on Lusaka and the CB is loosening, he may win WP and that will small fries for losing the big fish.
I am amazed that people in Zambia always complain about the powers of the President and yet when the President does not intervene in any situation to their liking, they complain. Henry is looking at the US system of government and wanting the same to apply to Zambia. The two cannot be exactly the same because ours is partially derived from the UK system, where the President has the same standing as the Monarch and not the Prime Minister. The closest likeliness is the French Presidency.
And they call this Internet Party President a Professor. How can you can you get it so wrong on the obvious and write so much nonsense.
#20 thanks for educating this dull boy who went through school using crooks law. God bless the children he is teaching now
The writter of the article should have researched more before posting.
The Electoral Act No.12 of 2006 clearly gives the president power to decide the election(polling) date.
For the issue of delegation, I agree with you 100%.
Nice day.
PF Government (#21), The Saint (#22), MMD Chief Bootlicker (#30), and We Can (#31): I was also as confused about the Electoral Bill / Act of 2006. I thought it did not pass and we were still using the 1996 constitution. I think it was hurriedly passed through Parliament to allow the late Levy Mwanawasa to use it. In the Contents of the Bill / Act, Part III and Part IV have different headings from those of Part III and Part IV in the body of the Bill / Act.
(Continued.) In the Table of Contents, we have the following: Part III (Dissolution of Parliament, Election Activities and materials) and Part IV (Election Officers). And we have the following in the body of the Bill / Act: Part III (Qualifications to Vote and Additional Materials Relating to Elections) and Part IV (Dissolution of Parliament, Election Activities and materials). We probably have a problem with the competence of our law makers or something, for how can such errors go undetected for so many years?
Shikapwasha said “the constitution … states that the country’s leader has the power to announce the election date at whatever time he feels the nation is ready.” The Electoral Act is not the Constitution …
Does Kyambalesa, who is/was a lecturer at UNZA, really expect Shikapwasha to know that the Electoral Bill or Act of 2006 is not part of the Republican constitution? With the errors cited by Mr. or Ms. Muzungu @ 32 and 33, the 1996 Constitution prevails, since it is the supreme law of the land. I, therefore, jokingly declare the Electoral Act of 2006 null and void!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX3oquintDw&NR=1