Change is inevitable - chief Nalubamba

Change is inevitable - chief Nalubamba
By George Zulu and Chibaula Silwamba
Sun 21 Nov. 2010, 04:01 CAT

SENIOR chief Bright Nalubamba yesterday declared that change of government is inevitable with or without the 50 per cent plus one vote threshold for the winning presidential canditate being en-shrined in the Constitution.

Commenting on the government’s exclusion of the referendum, which would have enabled Zambians to enshrine the 50 per cent plus one vote requirement for a winning presidential candidate ahead of next year’s elections, chief Nalubamba said the 50 per cent plus one vote requirement was very important as it would not allow a minority presidential candidate to run the country.

He said it was worrying that the MMD government had gone against the will of the people by ensuring that the 50 per cent plus one presidential threshold is not included in the laws that will govern polls next year.

Chief Nalubamba said Vice-President George Kunda’s position not to urgently consider the 50 per cent plus one threshold was a direct insult to people’s intelligence.

“He thinks we are kids! How many years has it taken to have the constitution? How many years has it taken the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) to come up with the draft? How much money has been spent on the exercise and today Vice-President Kunda is telling us about cost implications when in fact they collected huge sums of money during the NCC sittings,” chief Nalubamba said.

He said the failure to hold elections next year under the new electoral laws that would embrace the 50 per cent plus one threshold would be a source of conflict because people were not ready to be ruled by a minority President and government.

And Northern Province Anti Voter Apathy Project (AVAP) co-ordinator Kelly Kashiwa called for the separations of Kunda’s holding of two portfolios in Cabinet, Vice-President and justice minister, because that was disadvantaging the country.

“These two positions are very crucial to the running of the country and it is important that President Banda appoints a Minister of Justice. Surely one office suffers as a result of pressure from the other office,” he said.

Kashiwa said Zambians had learnt a lot of lessons from Vice-President Kunda’s holding of two positions in government for a long time.

“Today we do not know which office we the citizens can make Hon Kunda accountable for as a result of holding two offices,” said Kashiwa.