Maravi

Sangwa calls for elected vice-president

Sangwa calls for elected vice-president
Written by Ernest Chanda
Thursday, November 20, 2008 4:02:26 AM

LUSAKA lawyer John Sangwa has said the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) should consider adopting a recommendation in the Mung’omba report that a presidential candidate should have a running mate.

In an interview on Tuesday, Sangwa said if the country had a president and vice-president running in an election on the same ticket, it would help to fill the vacuum in the Constitution and that it would also cut down on costs in an event that the incumbent president died.

“I would go by what the Mung’omba Constitution Commission came up with, I mean it’s already there in the draft constitution. They have specifically provided that the vice-president shall be a running mate to the presidential candidate so you have to enact it,” Sangwa said. “Secondly, they have also made provision to the effect that in the event that the office of president fell vacant then the Vice-President would assume that office for the remainder of the term of the President.”

He said it was his prayer that the NCC would not change that particular provision.

Sangwa said if such a provision had been in the current Constitution at the time President Mwanawasa died, it could have saved the country the period it went through.

“We would have had no election held to fill up the vacancy in the Office of the President,” Sangwa said. “We would have the vice-president, whoever was vice-president was going to hold office, not perform functions, but was going to take over the Office of the President and then be President for the period that is remaining for the deceased president’s term, it’s already there.

“Article 31 (32) of the draft constitution addresses this situation to the effect that if there is a vacancy in the Office of the President then the vice-president will take over, although they have not provided for a specific period within which he can take over, but it can be construed to me that immediately the office becomes vacant then it’s automatic. For example, if the sitting President dies today, then the vice-president will have to assume the office of the President. The idea is not to allow for a vacuum, a situation where you have no President.”

He said such a provision in the constitution would ensure that the country had a president all the time.

“So basically it means that when the President dies or is removed from office for whatever reason automatically the vice president takes over. And the taking over is immediately upon that particular office of the president becoming vacant,” he said.

Sangwa said such a provision would also give credibility and legitimacy to those elected, and save on time and resources.

“Of course you will be serving money and things like that. It is also important for the people to know that when they are voting for the president they are also voting for the vice-president. So that if they are not happy with the choice of the President, then they don’t need to elect that particular presidential candidate. So when you elect a particular president, you endorse a particular presidential candidate then you are effectively endorsing the candidate for the vice-presidency,” he said. “The advantage is that both of them will get their mandate from the people, okay. So once they get elected then you are assured that for the next five years there will be no election in the office of the president, there will be no by-election, nothing like that. So basically that is something that will be settled. There is an advantage so that you don’t have to look forward to a by-election or to fill up the Office of the President.

“You don’t have to go like the period we have gone through, of uncertainty, of where you don’t know whether a particular party that is in power is going to win or not win and then you create instability. But the moment you have this particular clause coming into effect, what it means is that there is a smooth transition. The president dies, the vice-president takes over without any problems.”

He said if he had a way he would insist that the NCC adopt such a recommendation from the Mung’omba report for democracy and development.

Labels: CONSTITUTION, JOHN SANGWA

posted by MrK @ 4:04 AM