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Zim is in a crisis - Zinhumwe

Zim is in a crisis - Zinhumwe
By George Chellah in Harare, Zimbabwe
Tuesday September 11, 2007 [04:00]

ZIMBABWE is in a crisis and piecemeal electoral reforms cannot do justice to the challenges facing the country, National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO) chief executive Cephas Zinhumwe has said. And Zinhumwe appealed to the Zimbabwean Parliament to review the election dates so that constitutional redesigns can be done without rushing for time.

Zinhumwe, who was giving NANGO's position on the gazzetted constitutional amendment number 18 bill, said the spirit and purpose of the amendment was not clear.

"Zimbabwe is a country in crisis, many crises and therefore prioritising piecemeal constitutional reforms cannot do justice to the challenges facing the nation," Zinhumwe said. "The social, economic and political context in which Zimbabwe finds itself demands a serious wholesome, people-driven constitutional reform."

He said the civil society in Zimbabwe disagrees with the whole notion of piecemeal constitutional reforms.
"The current constitution, a colonial ceasefire settlement, has outlived its usefulness and cannot genuinely be expected to represent the interests, concerns and voices of the Zimbabwean people," Zinhumwe said. "In its current state, the Constitution of Zimbabwe is so defective. For instance, constitutional amendment 18 falls short on many shared democratic values."

Zinhumwe said the amendment was conceived and introduced without all stakeholders' participation.

"The lack of public participation at conception makes the whole process defective. Public participation is a sacrosanct democratic requirement in all matters of public policy. We therefore, request for a participatory process in the conception and development of the new constitution," he said.
Zhinhumwe also appealed to Parliament to review the dates for the forthcoming elections.

"The first quarter of 2008 is already an election season, the presidential election. Therefore, bringing any important amendments that affect the said elections now is bad timing," Zinhumwe said. "We hope that this timing is not deliberate and calculated to confuse the electoral process. We would want to appeal to our Parliament to review the election dates to another appropriate time, so that constitutional redesigns are done without rushing for time."

On June 8, 2007, major constitutional changes were formally proposed to harmonise Presidential and Parliamentary terms, expand the House of Assembly with all chiefs and provincial governors shifted to the Senate and establish an independent human rights commission.

The first key change is to harmonise the terms of the President and Parliament and reduce the maximum length of a presidential term to five years.
When the President dissolves Parliament, which he can do at any time within its five-year term, he automatically triggers a new Presidential election on the same day as the Parliamentary election.

The only two provisions are that the President remains in office until a successor is sworn in and that if the President dies, resigns or is removed from office in terms of the constitution, the members of the House of Assembly and Senate, sitting as a joint electoral college, shall elect a successor to hold office until the next Parliamentary election.

The bill also proposed to expand the number of elected lawmakers to 210, with ten appointed by the President and the rest elected.
Presently, Zimbabwe's parliament has 150 members.

Labels: NANGO, ZIMBABWE

posted by MrK @ 3:18 AM