By Chipenzi McDonald
WHY PF AND LUBINDA NOW URGENTLY WANT POLITICAL PARTIES’ BILL (2017) ENACTED?
Justice minister, Given Lubinda, after failing to pass Bill 10 (2019) in a shockingly, disappointingly and embarrassingly manner as admitted by Vice-President, Inonge Wina in Parliament last week, has now remembered the need to revisit the political parties’ Bill (2017).
To save face, Lubinda has gone into full gear rhetoric assuring the nation that his next legal stop is to restore the Political Parties’ Bill and present it for first reading in the National Assembly once given a go ahead by his Boss, President Edgar Lungu.
Just for your own information, the objects of the Political parties’ Bill are: the registration and regulation of political parties; the Establishment of the Board of Political parties; establishment and management of a political parties Fund; and The sources of funds for political parties.
What is then the urgent motivation by Lubinda and the PF to unshelve this shelved Bill which was not even considered by the National Dialogue Forum (2019) and has been on the shelves since 2017?
The real motive is not really as per objects of the Bill that of-the regulation of political parties and funding them-as government may have no money to fund political parties but the advantages the Bill may offer to any party with dwindling political and electoral base.
After Lubinda and his fellow proponents of Bill 10 failed to pass it into law, a Bill which would have helped them promote the formation of a coalition government, they have found in this political parties’ Bill (2017) another opening that may perform, achieve and preserve the same political interests that the coalition government clause in Bill 10 intended to.
The major interest by Lubinda and the PF may be, perhaps, deposited in section 24 and 25 that legalise the formation of Political and electoral Alliances and Mergers respectively ahead of the 2021 General Election.
Section 24 of political parties’ Bill (2017) proposes that “a political party may form an alliance with two or more political parties…in accordance with the [party] constitution, rules and procedures of the politucal party” while section 25 of the same Bill stresses that “a political party may merge with another political party…”
So the enactment of political parties’ Bill as as good as enacting Bill 10 and its proposed coalition government clause.
Another compelling interest why it has become urgent to Lubinda to enact the Political parties’Bill may be the ‘spying’ spirit/nature of the Bill as it proposes public knowledge on political parties’ sources of funding, amounts, income and expenditure.
Section 40 proposes to mandate all political parties to publish the sources of their funding, amounts, income and expenditure in at least 2 daily newspapers of general circulation in Zambia failure to which they commit an offence and are denied access to political parties Fund.
It is for the possible reasons that Given Lubinda is now in hurry to table the Political parties’ Bill into.
Since this Bill just require simple majority to pass, its possibility to pass into law in the National Assembly once Given is given the green light to table it is 100%.
I submit.