WE THE ZAMBIAN PEOPLE BUT THEY DIDN’T LISTEN: THE CASE OF THE REMOVAL OF THE PRESIDENTIAL TERM LIMIT
WE THE ZAMBIAN PEOPLE BUT THEY DIDN’T LISTEN: THE CASE OF THE REMOVAL OF THE PRESIDENTIAL TERM LIMIT
By Doctor Gabriel Bwalya Nsofwa
We warned the Zambian people against voting for a suit, but they did not listen. If the Constitution is amended to remove the presidential term limit, they should not blame anyone but themselves, because of the manner in which they voted for Members of Parliament.
If the 59 seats given to the Tonse Alliance – NRPUP and those given to UPND and Independent candidates had been spread across the many other political parties that contested the elections, the government would not have it easy to amend the Constitution.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL POSITION
In Zambia, a President can serve for two terms of five years each. Thereafter, he or she cannot seek re-election because of the limitation imposed by the Constitution of Zambia.
Although there is no official statement from the government about the removal of the presidential term limit, the government has indicated that there will be major constitutional reforms, meaning amendments. In addition, some UPND officials and Members of Parliament have hinted at removing the presidential term limit and leaving it open-ended.
If the government decides to take this route, it will easily amend the Constitution because it already has the numbers in Parliament to do so. The ruling party only needs six more Members of Parliament to attain the two-thirds majority required to amend the Constitution. They can easily convince six MPs from either the Independents or the NRPUP to vote with the ruling party.
That is why I personally opposed Bill 7, because it gives an undue advantage to the ruling party to have more Members of Parliament. This has killed democracy. Furthermore, the current Parliament is more compromised than any other Parliament since the introduction of multiparty democracy in 1991. As things stand, there is no NRPUP to talk about because it has already been compromised.
WHY I BLAME THE VOTERS
I personally blame this state of affairs in Parliament on the Zambian people themselves because of their desire to vote for a suit – what we call voting on a straight ticket. From Councillors to President, Zambians were only voting for two political parties: it was either UPND or pe lampi – NRPUP.
During the campaign period, we advised the Zambian people not to go for a set or a suit, but to mix their representation by voting for candidates from other political parties as well. We stated clearly that while for the position of President they could choose a candidate of their choice between UPND and NRPUP, for Members of Parliament they needed to mix by voting for parliamentary candidates from other political parties such as the Socialist Party (SP), Citizens First (CF) and others.
We told them that the danger of maintaining a suit is that if one political party is compromised, there would be no checks and balances left in Parliament. We also observed that voting for a suit leaves out people of high calibre who can objectively debate issues in Parliament. But the Zambian people did not listen. They voted only for MPs from either NRPUP or UPND.
THE CONSEQUENCE WE ARE FACING NOW
Now look at the current situation. NRPUP has already been compromised and will easily vote with the UPND for any Bill that will be presented in Parliament. And if a Bill to remove the presidential term limit is tabled, it will easily go through.
This would not have happened if Members of Parliament had been scattered among other political parties such as SP, CF and others. Those parties would have threatened their members with expulsion if they voted in favour of such a Bill. As things stand, NRPUP is compromised and most Independent Members of Parliament are linked to the ruling party.
We told the Zambian people, but they did not listen. They wanted a suit. Anyone who stood on either the UPND or NRPUP ticket was voted for, even if that candidate was of very low calibre.
The Zambian people should not complain because they caused this situation themselves. If they had spread Members of Parliament amongst many political parties, Parliament would have been strong. The ruling party would not have had it easy to pass any Bill in Parliament because there would have been proper checks and balances.
I end here.
I remain, Dr. Gabriel Bwalya Nsofwa