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Defeat of Kunda’s bill should end govt - Wila

Defeat of Kunda’s bill should end govt - Wila
By Chibaula Silwamba
Wed 06 Apr. 2011, 04:01 CAT

THE defeat of the constitutional amendment bill in the House warrants the resignation of the Vice-President and Cabinet as well as dissolution of Parliament, says Wila Mung’omba.

In an interview in Lusaka yesterday, Mung’omba said he agreed with lawyer Dr Rodger Chongwe that the government does not take constitution and budget bills to Parliament to go and lose and expect to stay in office.

“A vote on a constitution or a budget bill in all Commonwealth Parliamentary practice is a confidence vote. If a government loses on a confidence vote, it must resign and the House dissolved,” said Mung'omba, who chaired the Mung'omba Constitutional Review Commission (CRC).

“In Zambia where both parliamentary and democratic practices are still a threadbare pretence, the defeat of a constitution bill which was apparently intended to usher in a new constitution, is a matter of no consequence and a minor setback.”

Mung'omba said Speaker of the National Assembly Amusa Mwanamwamba must have told the members of parliament the implication of the defeat of the motion.

“When the vote had been counted, it was the duty of the Speaker of the House to explain the serious implications of that defeat: (a) that the bill did not command the confidence of the House and, therefore, of the nation; (b) that he was going to advise the President accordingly and that dissolution of the House was the expected consequence according to Parliamentary practice.”

Mung'omba said it would then have been President Rupiah Banda to take the most appropriate action to accept the resignation of the entire Cabinet, from the Vice-President downwards.

He said President Banda would have considered the efficacy of calling early elections when the tripartite elections were being anticipated in the next few months, but only after consulting with the opposition parties.

Mung'omba, a lawyer of more than 40 years experience, said it was not enough for Speaker Mwanamwambwa to only announce that the next elections would be held under the 1991 Constitution.

Mung’omba was first admitted to the English bar as a lawyer in 1968 before being admitted to the Zambian bar the following year. He also served as a member of parliament from 1972 to 1979 in the UNIP government. Mung'omba, said Mwanamwamba's announcement that this year’s elections would be held under the 1991 Constitution was too obvious a statement to convey the seriousness of what had taken place in the House. He said Mwanamwambwa’s lucid explanation of the implication of the vote would have prevented government chief spokesperson Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha and MMD spokesperson Dora Siliya from trivialising a tragic national event.

“When a bill of that importance has been lost in the House, it is totally repugnant to parliamentary practice to start extolling its virtues at press conferences. That is the job leaders of the House do before debates open by way of lobbying and consultation with other parties,” Mung’omba said. “In any event, even after six months period has lapsed, government or MMD will not be expected in terms of our Constitution and parliamentary practice to reintroduce the same bill; it will have to be a Constitution bill of a different nature and substance.”

Mung’omba said it was not the opposition parties, Patriotic Front (PF) and United Party for National Development (UPND), that defeated the constitutional bill but the whole House and it did not matter which party spear-headed the defeat.

“The House considered that it was not in the best interest of Zambia to vote for such a bill. The bill was a threat to Zambia’s democracy and it had to be stopped by the people’s representatives,” Mung’omba said. “Members of parliament are elected for that purpose, to protect the interests of the nation. When we decided to operate within institutions of democracy we must also accept to live with some of the most painful demands that democracy imposes on society.”

Mung'omba said the constitution bill was not defeated by PF leader Michael Sata or UPND's Hakainde Hichilema. He said Sata and Hichilema did not even sit in the House.

“The bill was defeated by the House comprising representatives from PF, UPND, UNIP, Alliance for Democracy and Development (ADD) and MMD - all exercising their free conscience in accordance with the trust placed on them by the electorate,” said Mung'omba. “Information making rounds is that although a three-line whip was expected on MMD members of parliament, some of them, including ministers, stayed away from the House when the vote was being taken. So what is the point blaming the opposition for the failure?”

Last week on Tuesday, the Banda-MMD-led government failed to garner the required two-thirds majority vote to pass the constitutional amendment bill to second reading in the National Assembly.

The ruling MMD that has lost some parliamentary seats in by-elections has 78 legislators in a 158-member National Assembly.

Labels: CONSTITUTION, NCC, ROGER CHONGWE, WILLA MUNG'OMBA

posted by MrK @ 4:08 PM