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Kunda excluded CRC commissioners from NCC - Harrington

Kunda excluded CRC commissioners from NCC - Harrington
By Ernest Chanda
Sun 08 Aug. 2010, 10:00 CAT

WILLIAM Harrington has accused Vice-President George Kunda of having schemed to exclude former Mungo'mba Constitution Review Commission (CRC) commissioners from the constitution-making process so that he could easily push the government agenda.

In an interview yesterday, the former Mung'omba CRC commissioner charged that Vice-President Kunda had been used by the government to reject people's submissions through the National Constitutional Conference (NCC). Harrington wondered why Vice-President Kunda rejected the idea of having former commissioners as ex-officio NCC members.

"It's a great pity that Vice-President George Kunda allowed himself to be used by the government against the will of the people.

It was him who rejected the idea of former commissioners being ex-officio members of the NCC. When we suggested that, he strongly objected the idea,” Harrington explained.

“I remember that we travelled across this country at a great cost getting people's submissions. And when we kept these submissions in our draft constitution, it's because we listened to the people and we wanted to grant them their wish.

That is why even at the NCC we wanted to defend our recommendations. I'm not saying that all of us former commissioners should have been there, but at least even our chairman Mr Willa Mung'omba should have been there to defend the people's will and make certain clarifications.

“These guys have behaved in this manner because there was no one to defend Mung'omba's report. The few former commissioners who were there were representing different organisations. Even in Parliament when a minister introduces a bill, he has to be there to explain and defend it.

So, why did George Kunda reject our presence at the NCC? The answer is obvious; he was being used by government to suppress the people's will, and he has succeeded."

Harrington wondered why the NCC could call on people to make the same submissions that the conference rejected at the plennary.
"I know that these guys are not doing things in the interest of the people, but I don't know what their motive is.

The things people submitted in the 40-day period are the same things they submitted under Mung'omba CRC and other commissions. And these are the things that the NCC rejected at the plenary, so what is the relevance of this public submission?” Harrington asked.

“In my view, right from the beginning the NCC's lifespan should have been reduced to six months. Or alternatively, the NCC should have been abolished and a team of constitutional lawyers could have given us a good constitution. This could have cut down on the unnecessary costs this NCC has incurred.”

The NCC completed deliberations on all the 11 committee reports as compiled from the Mung'omba draft constitution and adjourned sine die on April 29, 2010.
Prior to the adjournment, several articles of considerable public interest were not adopted by the NCC according to public will.

These include, among others, the rejection of an elected Vice-President, the introduction of a first degree as one of the qualifications for Presidential candidates and the refusal to agree on the fifty per cent plus one voting system for a President; a clause that was referred to a referendum.

On June 22, NCC chairperson Chifumu Banda released the draft constitution and gave the public 40 days in which to read and comment on the document.

However, the NCC has not gone round the country to get people's submissions as prescribed in Part VI Article 23 (1, C and D) of the 2007 NCC Act.

The 40-day period officially ended on Saturday July 31 and the NCC plenary is expected to reconvene for a week starting on Tuesday this week to consider people's comments on the draft constitution.

Thereafter, the NCC secretariat will make a final draft constitution that will be presented to the Minister of Justice on August 31, 2010.

The Minister of Justice will later present the draft constitution to Parliament for debate and subsequent adoption of respective articles, as the House will determine.

Labels: CRC, GEORGE KUNDA, MUNG'OMBA DRAFT CONSTITUTION, NCC, WILLIAM HARRINGTON

posted by MrK @ 3:41 AM