Maravi

Zaloumis describes NCC’s 40-day submission period a success

COMMENT - Is this the same woman who lied about decentralization having been 'taken care of' in the NCC Draft Constitution? I don't like lying in elected officials.

Zaloumis describes NCC’s 40-day submission period a success
By Ernest Chanda
Thu 05 Aug. 2010, 04:01 CAT

NATIONAL Constitutional Conference (NCC) spokesperson Mwangala Zaloumis has described the forty-day public submission period on the draft constitution a success. In an interview on Tuesday, Zaloumis said the NCC had gone through various challenges and weathered the storm. The period within which people were expected to make submissions on the NCC draft constitution ended on July 31.

"I think it has been a success, we have weathered the storm. You know sometimes as you undertake a process you get hailstorms and sometimes you get showers. If you get hailstorms you weather them and pull through, and if you get showers you pull up your umbrellas and move on," said Zaloumis.

"Those who stayed away from the process were in the minority. You get positive and negative points and you can't agree on everything. And as Zambians we have shown that we can do things in peace. I think we will never reach a 100 per cent situation because we can't agree on everything."

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 was officially supposed to have ended on Sunday, August 31.

According to the Act, the NCC plenary is expected to sit again in Lusaka at the end of the 40-day period 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.

Then 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: LYING, MWANGALA ZALOUMIS

posted by MrK @ 3:54 AM