Zimbabwe’s constitution-making process will go a step further in the next month with officials beginning to upload people’s views gathered from more than 4,500 meetings held during the outreach program this year.
The Constitution Parliamentary Select Committee (Copac) spearheading the crafting of the new constitution now has six months to complete all outstanding work.
Collection of data should have started in November but was stalled by lack of funding and will now start on January 10, followed by data analysis.
With the new work-plan now running two months late, thematic teams will have to burn the midnight oil in a bid to beat the April 30 deadline to present the proposed constitution to Parliament.
The presentation of the proposals to Parliament will be preceded by an all-stakeholders conference scheduled to be convened before the end of March.
The conference will allow interested parties to review the proposals and see if their views have been accommodated in the new constitution so as to avoid a possible “no” vote when it is finally presented to the people.
Hold elections
An earlier attempt to write a new constitution failed in 2000 when people voted overwhelmingly against it saying it was not in their best interest.
April 31 has been set aside as the deadline for presentation of the draft constitution to Parliament, but much will depend on the magnitude of amendments to be made following recommendations from the all-stakeholders’ conference.
The successful writing of a new constitution will lead to fresh elections and an end to the current inclusive government formed in 2009 following inconclusive polls in 2008.
In the event that the people refuse to pass the new constitution in a referendum, the parties in the inclusive government may agree on modalities to hold the elections.
According to the Global Political Agreement, the inclusive government is an interim arrangement which should last two years as the country works on a new constitution before fresh elections are held.
President Robert Mugabe, who leads Zanu-PF, has expressed frustration with the inclusive government and would rather have elections soon after the expiry of the interim arrangement, which should be in February 2011.
However, he agrees with the two other principals in the inclusive government – Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara – that reforms have to precede fresh elections.
Mr Tsvangirai and Prof Mutambara lead two factions of the MDC which split in 2005 following disagreement over the holding of senatorial elections held later that year. Mr Tsvangirai leads the larger of the two factions.
By: African Review
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