WE’RE LOOKING AT EXTENDING SEATS IN PARLEY TO ACCOMMODATE MORE MPs – MILUPI
INFRASTRUCTURE, Housing and Urban Development Minister Charles Milupi says the 40 designated seats for women in Parliament after the assenting of Bill 7 does not bar them from getting more seats.
And Milupi says experts from his Ministry have been tasked to see how the Parliament Chamber can be extended to accommodate more MPs.
On Monday, former LAZ President Linda Kasonde said passing the proportional representation electoral system in Bill 7 would not redress the lack of women, youth and persons with disabilities representation in Parliament.
In an interview, Tuesday, Milupi said with the guaranteed 40 seats for women, Parliament could have more female MPs.
“Let’s start with what we have done with women; there is a 40 seat that is guaranteed. No man can compete in Parliament, so, there will be 40 that will go into Parliament as women. There will be that number of youths who will just go to Parliament, the rest of the seats do not bar women to contest together with everybody else like we are doing right now. So, we men will be able to stand for example, I stand in a constituency like Munali, it is not one of those that is designated for women. Any woman can be able to compete with me and if they win like some of them do win, that’s why we have Sylvia Masebo, that’s why we have Sibongile Mwamba in Kasama,” he said.
“So, they will be able to compete even from those numbers, we may even get more women but the base would have already been established as 40. So, whatever they get from the other competitive elections will be on top of the 40 that is already guaranteed. So, we expect members of parliament who are women will be more than the base that is guaranteed. The youths will continue to compete, that’s how we got this young man [Imanga] Wamunyima who was chairman of the [Bill 7] select committee. So, whatever they (women) will win in other places whether it is in Nkana constituency, they will then be on top of the seats that are guaranteed. That’s the whole essence of this”.
Meanwhile, commenting on Kasonde’s remark that she heard him talking about extending the Parliamentary building to accommodate new MPs, Milupi said he had tasked experts to access how the current Chamber could be expanded to accommodate more MPs.
“The other issue of where are you going to get the budget? First of all, I didn’t say we are going to construct a new Parliament. What I said is we have sent our officers which include our Permanent Secretary who is an architect, in fact he is a professor. So, they will go and look at existing sitting arrangements and see what can be done to expand that, maybe a wall here, moved here.
Even in your house you may find that your sitting room is not big or your kitchen is too small, you may move a wall from here to there to create space, reduce one room, that’s why I said let them go and investigate then they will come and tell us the best option. At no time did we say we are going to construct a new Parliament, no. That is not what we said,” said Milupi.
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