Opposition wants poll

Opposition wants poll
By Noel Sichalwe and Patson Chilemba
Monday September 08, 2008 [04:00]

MAJOR opposition political parties yesterday opposed MMD national secretary Katele Kalumba's proposal for political parties to rally behind Acting President Rupiah Banda in the forthcoming presidential election.

United Party for National Development (UPND) secretary general Tiens Kahenya, in an interview, said it would be suicidal for political parties to forgo a presidential election and choose to support Acting President Banda.

Kahenya said it would not be good for Zambia to abrogate its own Constitution and do something else through a transitional government without conducting a presidential election.

"If we do that, we will not provide a good democratic government because so far we are role models in that area," Kahenya said. "If Zambia decided to disregard the Constitution and do something else, then what is Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe going to say? This is why we have to stick to the government of laws and not of men."

United National Independence Party (UNIP) deputy secretary general Reverend Alfred Banda said political parties should reach a consensus on the proposal, which was yet to be discussed.
Patriotic Front (PF) secretary general Edward Mumbi said political parties under the Zambia Centre for Inter-party Dialogue (ZCID) had not yet reached a conclusion on Kalumba's suggestion.

However, Mumbi said the proposal should be backed by constitutional provisions for it to be accepted by all political players and Zambians. He said the MMD was only interested to remain in power.
He said the MMD should be subjected to an audit commission for the past seven years to understand its programmes and the much talked about legacy.
Mumbi said the legacy of late president Levy Mwanawasa was not even clear, as some people could not understand what it involved.

And Lusaka-based constitutional lawyer Ngenda Sipalo called on Parliament to dissolve itself and pave way for general elections instead of only having a presidential election.
Sipalo said there was need for the political leadership to accept that the death of president Mwanawasa has plunged the country into a constitutional crisis.
He said although the Constitution under Article 38(3) provided for the Republican Vice-President to perform the functions of the Office of the President until a person who was elected assumed the office, it did not seem to provide for the Acting President.

"In my view, while it is provided in the Constitution that a presidential by-election should be held three months following the death of a sitting president, the best way out of all this is for Parliament to dissolve itself immediately. This is in accordance with Article 88(5)(b) of the Constitution in order to pave way for a general election," he said.
Sipalo said the clause requiring that the presidential election should be held within three months after the death of a sitting president was sneaked into the Constitution by the Chiluba regime in 1996.

He said initially, the Constitution provided for elections to be held six months after the death of a sitting President.
And retired politician Vernon Mwaanga urged the MMD to respect the national Constitution by going through an election. Mwaanga said the wishes of other political parties who want to contest the presidential election should be respected.
He said things could have been different had there been provisions for a running mate in the Constitution.

"It would have been desirable to minimise expense, not only for the country but the other parties involved, but let's be realistic and we have to respect the position of the other parties," he said.
Mwaanga further advised against amending the Constitution to allow Acting President Banda to continue in office without going through an election.

"We should go through and fight through an election. To amend the Constitution, you need a two-thirds majority but why even amend the Constitution? Let the people decide and then the NCC National Constitutional Conference will have to bear in mind what has happened and put provisions to safeguard the future, not the present circumstance. Let's respect the Constitution," said Mwaanga.

Kalumba recently proposed to political parties under the ZCID board that they consider rallying behind Acting President Banda to save the costs involved in conducting a presidential election as they awaited the 2011 general elections.
United Liberal Party president Sakwiba Sikota, a lawyer, has since endorsed the idea, arguing that it would save on the costs involved in conducting the presidential election.
Sikota has argued that this was a better option in view of the general elections that would be conducted in less than three years’ time.