Zimbabwean MPs approve draft constitution ahead of elections
By KITSEPILE NYATHI NATION Correspondent HARARE, Thursday
Posted Thursday, February 7 2013 at 20:28
In Summary:
A new constitution is a key reform needed ahead of new polls after deadly
2008 elections. The new draft basic law is the first to set a presidential
term limit — to two five-year terms — and to abolish presidential immunity.
Zimbabwe’s Senate was on Friday expected to pass the country’s draft
constitution after it sailed through Parliament the previous day.
Officials from a cross party parliamentary committee that led the
constitution making process said they were already preparing for a
referendum sometime next month.
President Robert Mugabe will set a date for the vote soon after the draft
charter is passed by Senate as largely expected.
Mr Paul Mangwana of the veteran ruler’s Zanu PF party said all was now set
for the referendum.
“The draft was adopted by parliament we and we are now waiting for the
proclamations of the referendum dates,” he said. “We now want the date.”
The debate on the draft Wednesday lasted a few hours because the three
governing parties had already reached an agreement.
“The Members of Parliament debated the report and some section of the draft
and at the end of the day the motion was adopted by parliament,” said Mr
Douglas Mwonzora of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC).
“All the political parties said they were going to support the draft and the
MPs also pledged to campaign for a ‘Yes’ vote,” he added.
“What is left now is that we must embark on civic education campaign to tell
our people what the constitution says so that they vote knowing what they
are voting for.”
Mr Mwonzora said only traditional leaders who sit in the Senate had raised
objections to some provisions of the draft but the chiefs were not expected
to block the charter.
“Chiefs are raising issues that they want to be in charge of all the rural
land, which now rural land includes commercial farms and any land that is
not urban land,” he said.
“(But) you cannot put that in charge of chiefs surely. So we explained that
the parliamentarians.”
The draft that was completed last month after four years of bickering will
curb the president’s powers.
Southern African Development Community leaders have insisted on a new
constitution before Zimbabwe holds fresh elections after the previous polls
in 2008 were marred by violence.
Meanwhile, a pro-democracy group that has long fought for an equitable new
constitution for Zimbabwe has said that the draft text still gives the
president too much power.
“The … draft is neither people-driven nor democratic and must be
rejected,” the head of the National Constitutional Assembly told
journalists early this week.
The proposed basic law ignores most suggestions received from the public,
said NCA chairman Lovemore Madhuku.
“The constitution leaves all powers to the president, who is allowed to do
what he wants,” he said, adding that the NCA would call on Zimbabweans to
vote “no” in the referendum.
The NCA led a successful campaign in 2000 to reject an earlier draft basic
law, but its influence is thought to have waned in the southern African
country, long mired in economic and political crises.
A new constitution is a key reform needed ahead of new polls after deadly
2008 elections. The new draft basic law is the first to set a presidential
term limit — to two five-year terms — and to abolish presidential immunity.
Mr Mugabe, who first came to power in the former Rhodesia as prime minister
at independence in 1980, has been head of state since 1987.
He is now 88.
But the proposed new constitution still gives the president the power to
appoint government ministers, security chiefs, senior government officials
and ambassadors, and to convene the cabinet.
The president would also have final say over the appointment of judges and
have the power to dissolve parliament.Mr Madhuku noted that the draft fails
to require the president to answer questions in parliament, and that the
head of state would be allowed to declare a state of emergency or war
without consulting parliament.
The NCA also deplored a clause in the draft charter that exempts women,
juveniles and the elderly from the death penalty.
“If the death penalty is retained, it must not be applied in this
discriminatory way,” Mr Madhuku said.