Mambo urges Mung’omba to speak out on 50% +1 clause

Mambo urges Mung’omba to speak out on 50% +1 clause
By Namatama Mundia
Tue 19 Jan. 2010, 16:30 CAT

FORMER commissioner in the Mung’omba Constitution Review Commission (CRC) Bishop John Mambo has urged Willa Mung’omba and senior chief Inyambo Yeta to comment as former commissioners on the 50 per cent plus one voting system.

And delegates at the National Constitution Conference are scheduled to vote at 18:30 hours (16:30 GMT)on whether to introduce the 50 per cent plus one clause in the new constitution or maintain the simple majority requirement for one to emerge president in elections.

In an interview, Bishop Mambo said as former CRC chairperson and vice-chairperson respectively, Mung’omba and senior chief Yeta could sensitise delegates at the National Constitution Conference on why commissioners maintained the clause in the final report.

“Given an opportunity, I would ask the chairman Mr Willa Mung’omba or his vice, Senior Chief Inyambo Yeta to comment on these matters.

I say so because when some of us talk, they NCC delegates think that we talk because we were left out of the NCC. And when we comment there is all this name-calling and all that,” Bishop Mambo said.

“Now I want to comment on the 50 per cent plus one. The government of Zambia spent money on the constitution making process.

We as commissioners we went to all the nine provinces of the country.
We went to all the 150 constituencies to get views of people on what type of constitution they wanted.

Constitution making is very costly.

The majority of our people emphasised that for all this outcry each time we have an election, let us have in our constitution that a Presidential candidate must be voted in by a 50 per cent plus one threshold.”

He said the clause was not political as those opposing it were trying to portray.

“…They also emphasised that a Presidential candidate should have a running mate so that his Vice-President does not become vulnerable. That’s what the majority of the Zambian people submitted. Now, when you look at the report you will find that it embraces everything that Mvunga and Mwanakatwe Commissions talked about. Fifty plus is none political. It’s neither MMD, nor PF or UPND; it is an outcry by the Zambian people,” Bishop Mambo said.

“You can’t have a situation where whoever wins the swearing in is done in a hurry before other concerns are addressed, it creates suspicions. The President Rupiah Banda was in Mozambique for inauguration.

All that was in our report, because after an election there must be a smooth transition.”

Bishop Mambo called on commissioners opposing the clause to be tolerant like Mung’omba who, despite being catholic, allowed the Christian nation declaration to be maintained in the preamble of the draft constitution.

“Those who are against 50 plus one are referring to Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe’s political situation is not like Zambia. By nature we are a people who cry for what’s good and then we shout.
Zambians are mature people politically. If chairman Mung’omba who is catholic, a grounded catholic, did not remove the Christian nation declaration from the preamble despite himself being opposed as a catholic, why can’t the same happen to the 50 plus one?” he asked.

“This clause is not about which political party will benefit. What we are saying is that anyone who wins an election by that threshold will gain legitimacy.

And whoever condemns such a person will be a laughing stalk. But as it is now a lot of time is being wasted by name-calling, finger pointing and all that; instead of the President becoming President of the entire nation.

In Ghana if they did not go for a 50 plus one, the ruling party would have been in power. The ruling party would have engineered the election.”