Maravi

NCC hands over draft Constitution to govt

NCC hands over draft Constitution to govt
By Mwala Kalaluka
Tue 31 Aug. 2010, 04:01 CAT

VICE-President George Kunda yesterday said government will have to carefully plan for those provisions with significant financial implications before they are enacted now that the government has received the final draft constitution from the National Constitutional Conference (NCC).

On the occasion of the handover of the draft constitution bill, 2010 and the final report of the NCC to his office as Minister of Justice at Cabinet Office yesterday, Vice-President Kunda said the government recognised that many of the provisions of the final draft constitution which were adopted by the conference would involve extensive reforms before they could be implemented.

“They also have significant financial implications which the government needs to carefully plan for before the new constitutional provisions are enacted by Parliament,” Vice-President Kunda said.

“Now that we have received the final NCC draft constitution, we will, as government begin the legislative processes that precede the submission of a bill to alter the constitution to Parliament for enactment.”

Vice-President Kunda cited the constitutional provisions with significant financial implications and extensive reform processes, as the NCC’s increase in the composition of the National Assembly by adjusting the number of constituency based seats from the current 150 seats to 225.

“In addition the conference adopted the provisions to establish the Parliamentary Service Commission and the Gender Equality Commission, among others,” Vice-President Kunda said.

“Further, the conference approved and adopted the provisions to establish a constitutional court and a court of appeal among the superior courts of the judiciary. The introduction of these two courts in the judicial hierarchy also have significant financial implications for which careful planning must be done.”

Vice-President Kunda said the government would, therefore, take necessary measures to prepare for the implementation of these important constitutional provisions.

“...and present to Parliament a bill to enact the provisions of the adopted final draft constitution at an appropriate time,” Vice-President Kunda said.
“At the same time the government will prepare to submit to a referendum a bill containing the provisions that seek to alter the Bill of Rights and Article 79 of the current constitution and all those provisions of the Mung’omba Draft Constitution on which the conference failed to agree.”

Vice-President Kunda said if the provisions were approved by the people of Zambia, the Bill would then be submitted to Parliament for the enactment of the approved constitutional reforms in due course.

Vice-President Kunda said for those provisions that had been referred to a referendum, the issue of the 2010 national census on population should be taken into consideration, as this activity would determine the referendum threshold.

Vice-President Kunda said thanked the late president Levy Mwanawasa, under whose able leadership the NCC was constituted in 2007.

Vice-President Kunda also thanked President Rupiah Banda, who he said whole-heartedly supported the adoption process from its inception and ensured that the process was successfully concluded.

“This is in spite of the incessant attacks on the constitution adoption process from those who unsuccessfully attempted to derail and discredit the process,” Vice-President Kunda said.

“They have criticised the conference for not adopting every provision in the Mung’omba Draft Constitution, and yet the mandate of the conference as specified in the National Constitutional Conference Act was very clear.”

Vice-President Kunda said the NCC was mandated to vary, confirm or remove any provision of the draft constitution as the members considered appropriate.

“The conference was faithful to that mandate, and it is, therefore, misleading to suggest that the conference in taking the informed decisions that they took on all provisions and in rejecting some of those provisions failed the people of Zambia,” Vice-President Kunda said.

“The Mung’omba CRC report did not recommend that the National Constitutional Conference should be a rubber stamp.”

Vice-President Kunda commended the NCC on the ‘high quality’ of its final draft constitution, which he said comprised some of the submissions from the public on the initial NCC report.

“The final draft constitution compares very favourably with the constitutions of other countries worldwide,” Vice-President Kunda said. “I attribute the adoption of this high quality document to the wealth of expertise that was evident among the members of the conference.”

Meanwhile, Vice-President Kunda informed the nation that the National Constitutional Conference Act No. 19 of 2007 will stand repealed today and the membership of the NCC will ultimately expire.

“However, some members of the Secretariat will continue in office to wind up the affairs of the conference until 30th November, 2010, when their term of office will expire in accordance with the provisions of the NCC Act,” said Vice-President Kunda.

And disbanded NCC chairperson Chifumu Banda conceded that the constitution-making process that came to a conclusion yesterday had been a long and challenging one.

Labels: CONSTITUTION, GEORGE KUNDA, NCC

posted by MrK @ 4:10 AM