Zambia’s controversial bid to amend constitution flops

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Zambia’s controversial bid to amend constitution flops

7:00 CAT | 02 Nov 2020

Zambian President Edgar Lungu (centre) at Heroes Stadium in the capital Lusaka n September 13, 2016, before he was sworn in as the re-elected head of state. The constitutional reforms would have sharply increased his powers ahead of elections in 2021. [File photo: AFP]

Zambia’s ruling party failed Thursday in its controversial bid for constitutional reforms that would have expanded President Edgar Lungu’s powers ahead of elections due next year.

Parliament failed to pass the bill after less than the required two-thirds majority of lawmakers voted in favour.

Lawmakers from the Patriotic Front garnered 105 votes, just six votes shy of the 111 needed.

Opposition lawmakers led by the largest party, the United Party for National Development (UPND) snubbed the parliamentary session.

Known as Bill number 10, it had sought to scrap parliament’s oversight role and would have allowed the head of state to change the electoral layout and take control of central bank monetary policy.

Critics had long opposed it saying it effectively laid the ground for a constitutional dictatorship.

Some said it would have made it impossible to legally challenge Lungu from seeking a third term in elections due in August next year.

Lungu’s main rival and UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema celebrated the failure of the bill, posting on his Facebook page that it “was a diabolical idea from an evil regime that had sought to entrench itself against the will of the people”.

There was jubilation in the capital Lusaka where motorists blew their car horns as soon as news filtered that the bill had failed.

There was a heavy presence of police at the parliamentary precinct during the voting.

Zambia has enjoyed relative stability since its first multi-party election in 1991, which ousted the country’s long-running post-independence leader, Kenneth Kaunda.

But Lungu — who initially replaced president Michael Sata when he died unexpectedly in 2014, and then won the presidency in his own right in 2016 — has come under criticism for increasingly becoming authoritarian against his rivals.

Source: AFP