DON’T ALLOW THE UPND TO DAMAGE WHAT IS GOOD, RESIST SUBJECTIVE ATTEMPTS TO AMEND CONSTITUTION – HON GEORGE CHISANGA.
……….says the constitution is a national document not to be altered for personal gain.
Lusaka …….September 21, 2024 (Smart Eagles)
Patriotic Front (PF) Chairman for Legal Hon. George Chisanga has urged Zambians to resist subjective attempts to amend the current constitution.
This comes after President Hakainde Hichilema claimed there are lacunas in the constitution that could postpone elections and the UPND’s push for a general review of the constitution process.
Speaking at Media briefing Friday, Hon Chisanga said the Constitution is a national document, not a political one and should not be altered for personal gain.
He noted that the country had enacted a near-perfect constitution through a clear roadmap and task force on constitution making, with provisions like Article 52 guiding elections.
He said Zambia must therefore not allow a small group of people (UPND) to damage what is good.
“The Patriotic Front had indicated a clear road map. We had said that we were going to bring everyone on board. We set out a task force on the constitution making.
When we had a Presidential By election, President Edgar Lungu then Minister of Justice said he will ensure that the constitution to be enacted was what was in the review. Act Number 2 of 2016, it also included provisions of article 52 to guide on elections. This was a progressive piece of legislation and the UPND also participated. When President Lungu passed it into Law, there was need in the future to provide more clarity. It was against that background that the story of Bill 10 came up,” he said.
Hon Chisanga has criticized the UPND’s insistence on lacunas in Article 52, saying it sends the wrong message and raises concerns about the government’s intentions.
“When you see a Government begin to justify a position that is wrong, then there is a challenge as a nation. To keep insiting that Article 52 has a lacuna, even it begins to send wrong signals to the public that maybe there is something beyond Article 52 that the governmemt would like to achieve………….The Minister of Home Affairs Hon. Jack Mwiimbu talks about how the President has been abused by the PF and their surrogates and threatened those who are abusing the President.
This is a multiparty system, we exist to provide checks and balances to those in power.
The Ministers who are speaking and asking the public to support the President are the one who are making a mistake……. because the Prsident is not infallible, he is human as anybody else is. By finding a lacuna in a statute where the lacuna does not exist, he made a mistake,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Hon Chisanga has charged that there seems to be a leadership challenge in the UPND based on Contrasting statements made by the Vice President and the Head of State.
He said the Vice President is on record in Parliament as having said that the UPND has got no intention of amending the Constitution.
“There is no need to amend this constitution. The Vice president is on record in Parliament that the UPND has got no intention of amending the Constitution. It appears that there might be Leaderhsip challenges in the UPND, the President and the vice president cannot be saying different things.
We need to apply ourselves to leadership with good intentions. If this clause was as bad as the President would like to portray, why didn’t President Edgar Lungu keep on postponing elections,” said HON. CHISANGA.
These are the beneficiaries of kasaka ka ndrama. Nothing good can come out of their mouths.
HH pointed out a serious loop hole created by Lungu. Lungu is the one who signed the questionable clause into law so that he himself Lungu can rule for muyayaya.
Let’s not demonise the whistle blower.
It is clear to me that the learned counsel has deliberately decided to twist the narrative. This is not surprising at all, given that he is using political lenses.