The civil society in Zambia on Thursday picketed Parliament
Posted by African Press International on July 20, 2007
Posted by Wilfred Zulu
Lusaka–The civil society in Zambia on Thursday picketed Parliament urging Members of Parliament not to support a governments Constitutional Conference Bill.
Led by the outspoken Oasis Forum, which is composed of the church and Law Association of Zambia (LAZ), the protestors who included university students and opposition political parties, demanded that the constitution-making process was supposed to be all-inclusive and not a preserve of politicians, as the Bill seeks.
Two weeks ago, President Levy Mwanawasa said that the constitution making process was a political process, therefore the civil society were not supposed to be allowed to hijack it.
Since 2003 when the Constitution Review Commission (CRC) was set up to come up with a new republican constitution, the process has along the way been clouded in mistrust between government on one hand and the opposition political parties and the civil society on the other.
According to a petition presented to Parliament by the Oasis Forum, the civil society says, the Constitutional Conference Bill should not be tabled in parliament before we, the people see the contents of the Bill and make their comments.
Ironically, two of the five political parties that converged under the Netherlands governments sponsored Zambia Centre for Inter-party Dialogue (ZCID) have since pulled out after government committed them, without consultation, to a roadmap that does not allow public participation in discussing the contents.
But Justice Minister George Kunda dismissed the demands by the civil society as lacking real issues.
As government, we are going ahead to present the bill as soon as we finish working on itit should be in the next week or so.
Once presented in Parliament, it is most unlikely to fail as the ruling party enjoys big numbers.
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