KBN TV EDITORIAL- REVELATIONS OF THE PRESIDENTIAL SEAT GLUE
President Hakainde Hichilema has incessantly boasted that no one can unseat him because he is permanently glued to the seat of power.
This is a figure of speech that very few people understood the full extent of what he really means.
In the aftermath of the Constitutional amendment proposal and roadmap presented before Parliament, there is no more guess work. The UPND wants to entrench its hold on power by staging a Parliamentary siege to pass laws that will favour and perpetuate their stay in power.
Since they are working on the basis of previous recommendations for delimitation, we expect no less than 90 new seats and an unknown number of additional nominated MPs by the President, up from the current constitutional provision of 8. The number could go to anything between 15 and 20 or more.
The other aspect to consider is the proportional representation of women, youths and the differently abled persons. If the approach is to be nationally representative, you expect an MP from each of the 116 districts. We could potentially have Parliament in excess of 250 MPs.
Assuming that were to be the case, let’s look at the cost implications. Each MP is entitled to a car loan of 100,000 dollars which is an equivalent of K3 million multiplied by the number of seats in this case, 250, you are talking about over K725 million that Government must pay upfront.
This is before you talk about daily seating and meal allowances. The question is, do we have this kind of money to afford the proposed luxury?
If we proceed on this path, we need a new Chamber to accommodate the proposed number of MPs. In terms of the residence for MPs, Parliament Motel is already full and a number of MPs are staying in Lodges. That’s a huge cost to the Nation.
You may ask, what’s motivating the UPND Government to wantonly disregard the voices of the Church, CSOs, LAZ and many other stakeholders including the majority of citizens who have opposed this proposed constitutional amendment?
That’s exactly the glue that President Hichilema has been talking about. Once he increases the number of MPs that he can personally nominate, once he increases the number of MPs from the UPND strongholds through delimitation, once he guarantees a number of seats to youths, women and differently abled persons through a rigged system, he has Parliament in his pocket and he can seat on their heads. They will act as his seat and they will be glued to him through sponsored loyalty.
The implication is that with such mingalato, the Parliament of 2026 can easily vote to remove the Presidential term limit, can vote for the removal of the 50+1, and remove the running mate clause among other constitutional changes.
If these constitutional amendments go through, then Zambia is back to the Wamuyayaya days of Kaunda where people faithfully went to vote against a frog just because the constitution said we should have elections!
Unfortunately, a number of the current crop of MPs don’t have the interest of the Nation at heart. In fact, most of the MPs today don’t care about people who voted for them.
They are highly compromised and we can’t dismiss the rumours that most of them have accepted bribes of between K1.5 million to K2.5 million to vote in favour of the proposed constitutional amendments.
Infact, we understand that as at today, the UPND was merely looking for an additional 5 MPs to be on their side and they would have secured these constitutional amendments.
The questions that you should ask is if these proposals are genuine, why should favours and inducement exchange hands?
What is the show stopper to warrant a rushed constitutional amendment a year before elections against the will of Zambians?