LAZ DEMANDS WITHDRAWAL OF BILL 7
THE CONSTITUTION AMENDMENT BILL NO. 7 OF 2025 MUST BE WITHDRAWN BY GOVERNMENT AS IT IS DEVOID OF STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVEMENT AND PARTICIPATION AS REQUIRED BY THE BASIC TENETS OF CONSTITUTIONALISM
The Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) has carefully reviewed the provisions of the
Constitution Amendment Bill No. 7 of 2025 which was published in the Government Gazette on 23rd May, 2025 wherein the Government indicates its settled intention to introduce it on the floor of the National Assembly to reform the country’s Constitutional Order.
LAZ notes with concern that the initiated proposed constitutional amendment process excluded stakeholders and citizens from involvement. In fact, the proposed Bill appears to have been published in the Gazette merely for citizens’ ‘general information’ without any established pathway for meaningful participation prior to its submission to the National Assembly.
We note, further, that Government has not disclosed any information on the processes adopted in coming up with the content of the Bill and changes thereto, nor is there information on which stakeholders made recommendations on the proposed content of the Bill.
It is LAZ’s position that the Constitution is a people’s document and their involvement in its formulation is not subject to any exceptions.
The preamble to the Constitution is explicit about this fundamental principle, and the provisions of Article 79 of the Constitution, which provides for procedures for making amendments to the Constitution, must never be used to sideline the owners of the Constitution, the citizens, from meaningfully participating in its reform.
Government and the party in power at any particular time exercising delegated power which is reposed in the people –– have an obligation to create a legally protected process which assures citizens’ meaningful participation in the reform of the supreme law of the land and protects the content.
It is therefore LAZ’s position, that the Constitution Amendment Bill No. 7 of 2025 lacks the much-needed broad-based stakeholder engagement and consensus to birth a legitimate and acceptable constitutional reform.
Unfortunately, due to its failure to benefit from the collective wisdom which broad-based
stakeholder consensus assures, some of the proposed amendments have the potential to erode the democratic tenets on which our country is anchored.
We wish to draw the attention of the
nation to the following:
1. Section 8 of the Bill proposes to amend Article 72(8) of the Constitution, to enable
vacancies in the office of Member of Parliament (MP) to be filled by Political Parties from which the MP was elected.
This is dangerous, especially with weak intra-party democracy within political parties. It not only deprives citizens of the right to choose leaders of their choice to represent them in Parliament, but can also result in abuse where democratically leaders of the people in National Assembly are wholesomely replaced, clandestinely and without elections, by timid and abiding members of the parties. This will result in the erosion of the accountability function reposed in the
National Assembly, undermining checks and balances, to the prejudice of citizens.
2. Further, the proposed amendments aimed at increasing the participation of women,
youths and persons with disabilities are wholly inadequate and do not benefit from the views of these stakeholders, whom they are purportedly intended to serve.
3. We also note that the proposed provisions increasing the number of elected Members
of Parliament to 211 are based on the Electoral Reform Technical Committee Report,which remains shrouded in secrecy, despite having been a product of a public process.
We do not believe citizens can debate an increase of constituencies, while the location
of the proposed constituencies is treated as a state secret. It is equally hard to understand
why Government would want to prioritize and rush to expend the country’s meagre
resources on an expanded National Assembly instead of prioritizing mechanisms for
actualizing the decentralization policy, for resources to trickle down to the grassroots,
especially that there is no empirical evidence that smaller constituencies are currently
better off than bigger ones, nor that the presence of more MPs is the panacea for the
much-needed economic development of the country.
LAZ, therefore, calls on Government to listen to the voice of the Church, traditional authorities, civil society among other stakeholders, and withdraw the proposed Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 7 of 2025. All constitutional reforms must be based on genuine, broad-based stakeholder engagement and consensus on both the substance and process to assure the
legitimacy of its outcome.
Meanwhile, LAZ will be convening a Public Forum to give members and the general citizenry a platform to air their views on the current proposed Constitutional reform process.
The press release on a matter of national interest, in promotion of Constitutionalism and legal reforms, has been issued in furtherance of LAZ’s mandate under Section 4 of the Law Association of Zambia Act No 31 of the Laws of Zambia.
Dated this 3rd June, 2025.
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LUNGISANI ZULU
PRESIDEN
