Thinking about it, I have reached the conclusion that the greed of the crafters of Bill 10 complicated President Lungu’s desire to use the constitution amendment process to assure an easier 2021.
In typical PF accumulate-more-than-you-can-ever-use style, Bill 10 writers went for more than they needed for 2021 – and thus made it so easy to recognise the evil intent of the Bill.
Here is my thinking. All Minister Lubinda needed to do, to get the job done, was present the country with a Bill with just enough dodgy clauses to smooth electoral waters, while successfully pretending to be addressing lacunae identified after the 2016 constitutional amendment.
Mr Lubinda should have, for example, simply removed Article 52 and inserted the coalition clause and left it there. Just with that, EL’s battle for re-election would become less herculean.
The Minister would then sweeten the poison by addressing all the loopholes and inconsistencies in the current constitution. He could go so far as adding a few positive extras like quotas for women/the disabled and the strenghtening of a few critical institutions of governance like the Judiciary and Electoral commission. (Rememeber by now ECZ could be as independent as it liked but the coalition clause would still deliver EL a win if he just got his nose ahead of his opponents in the results)
By that, the Minister would have ensured some sections of the country were genuinely happy with the Bill and could defend it without sounding entirely off centre. The Millions of Kwacha used to push the mad Bill could be directed to addressing service delivery issues to further smoothen campaigns.
So, with just a little strategy (since respect for Zambians is difficult) Bill 10 would still have had self interest but the bad will would have been camouflaged. This would have made CSO advocacy against its still existent harm that much tougher.
But NO! Instead the crafters went into overdrive with Deputy Ministers, a Parliament that creates itself, free access to debt, Ministers campaigning on public money against an active court ruling😮.
They tried to suffocate our democracy when all they really wanted was an easy election they did not need to rig too much.
Goodness, the Minister was like a thief who arrives in a car with blaring sirens and flashing lights.
Now, even if Bill 10 passes the whole country knows its evil and is angry at the disrespect.
Like is asked so many times, are there not even 2 wise people in PF to say apa yayi, kapena tichite so