UPND PINNING ON BILL 7
…It believes constitutional amendments will save it – Zimba
By Charles Musonda
THE United Party for National Development (UPND) is trying to consolidate its stay in power using the controversial Bill 7 amendments, says constitutional lawyer Jonas Zimba.
In an interview Sunday, Zimba said Zambia was in a crisis today because of Bill 7 which allowed the amendments to the Constitution with the aim of saving the UPND from defeat.
“Bill 7 was the only survival platform for the UPND, and that President Hakainde Hichilema himself confirmed this at a meeting in Choma that if Bill 7 did not pass, the UPND would have been gone,” he said.
Zimba was commenting on Zambia Wake-Up Party (ZAWAPA) president Howard Kunda’s appeal to Zambians to reject any attempt by the UPND to turn Zambia into a one-party state.
“Normally, when people are trying to play around with the constitution in a democracy like ours, we refer to Zambia as a competitive autocratic regime. Basically, what we get to have is that we have the ruling party fighting with both hands and the opposition either one or both hands aside,” he said.
Zimba said with the proportional representation clause, the UPND would have more representation in Parliament to make it impossible for any party to rule again.
“What is going to happen is that when you look at a proportional representation system, they will definitely have the majority of members of Parliament, meaning that they can pass any constitutional amendment they can think of,” Zimba said.
He said if the UPND was given another chance beyond August, a constitutional amendment would take place targeting the presidential term limit.
Zimba said Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha had already indicated the desire to make amendments to the Constitution once the UPND was voted back in August.
“…said the first thing that UPND will do when they retain power after the August 13 general elections is to embark on a holistic amendment of the Constitution. The only reason why they will do that is that they will be comfortable with the numbers and they can easily come up with anything that they want to put there and it will pass because it will be about the arrogance of numbers,” he said.
Zimba, however, urged the UPND to think about how the laws it wants to come up with would impact society and not how to fix its opponents.
“So, all these things going on can largely point to one fact; that basically the UPND is trying to entrench itself in power. That’s why you will hear officials say UPND mpaka (until) 2090 because they are playing with the law,” he said.
