An Overview Of Zambia's Political Scene In 2016

President Lungu unveils the amended constitution

By Paul Shalala

2016 was a year which started with landmark decisions which would shape the future of this country.

On January 5^th, President Edgar Lungu assented to the amendments of the republican constitution, bringing on board several changes which the Zambian public had yearned for years.

These are clauses and articles which the public had consistently submitted to successive constitution review commissions.

Some had described President LUNGU’s decision to allow the amendments as a matter of life and death especially with the 50 percent plus one presidential winning threshold.

This threshold replaced the decades old first past the post which was very controversial, allowing minority presidents to win even with the slimmest of margins.

"The 50+1% threshold worked very well this year. It helped the people of Zambia choose a popular president," said William Nyirenda, S.C. a prominent Kitwe lawyer in an interview.

Further, the 1996 amendment which brought the requirement for presidential candidates to have both parents born in Zambia was scrapped off.

This brought to an end the infamous parentage clause which barred most politicians to run for the highest office in the land.

Among the most popular clauses in the amended constitution was the Vice President running mate clause.

This clause forced political parties to have a presidential candidate and their running mates during the run up to the August 11 general elections.

Secondly, it is in 2016 when Zambia adopted a definite date for general elections: the second Thursday of August every after five years.

This put to rest the old practice of sitting presidents choosing the election date.

This usually did not go well with the opposition because sometimes it would play well to the incumbent if they chose a closer date.

Zambians voting during the general elections on August 11

Another significant addition to the constitution was the adoption of dual citizenship which had been championed by Zambians in the diaspora.

Since then, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has even come up with the diaspora policy which is expected to help Zambians abroad in taking party in the development of the motherland.

According to the constitution, all matters of citizenship are to be administered by the Citizenship Board which is yet to be established.

On the local government scene, the amendments gave universal suffrage to the election of Mayors and Council Chairpersons.

For the first time since the return of multi-party politics 25 years ago, Zambian voters elected their heads of city, municipal and district councils as opposed to the old systems were councilors would vote for their city fathers.

However, this amendment brought about a huge debate whether the Mayors and Council Chairpersons had executive powers or not.

"We can not have two chief executive officers at the local authority: the Mayor and the Town Clerk. The Mayor is not executive as claimed by many, the constitution is clear that the Town Clerk will continue being chief executive while the Mayor is the political head of the policy formulation process," said Alderman Patrick Tembo, a long serving Councillor in Kitwe and former Vice President of the Local Government Association of Zambia.

A number of young Mayors and Council Chairpersons were elected across the country.

The youngest are Kitwe Mayor Christopher Kangombe, Luanshya Mayor Nathan Chanda and Kabwe Mayor Prince Chileshe who were all elected at the age of 31 in August.

In legal affairs, this year’s constitutional changes created the Constitutional Court and the Court of Appeal.

Kitwe Mayor Christopher Kangombe and his wife

The constitutional court did not even have chance to settle down as it was quickly involved in resolving disputes arising from the August 11 general elections.

Despite its ruling over the opposition’s appeal of the re-election of President Lungu, the cases are still being heard in the lower courts.

In terms of the general elections held in August, the ruling Patriotic Front secured another five year term after a tightly contested polls.

The party also increased its number of MPs to 83 while the opposition UPND came out second but increased its numbers in Parliament to 58.

Other parties with MPs in the house are MMD (4) and FDD (1).

Interestingly, the adoption process both for the PF and UPND was marred with protests and surprising decisions which forced most preferred candidates to contest as independents.

Both the PF and the UPND did not release their list of adopted parliamentary candidates before the nomination date.

In some instances, two candidates from a single political party showed up at nomination centers with nomination papers and it had to take dialogue and phone calls for only one candidate to file in on that respective party ticket.

According to some observers, this situation led the country to have an unprecedented number of 14 independent Members of Parliament.

Keembe MP Princess Kasune Zulu

This was a huge rise from three independent MPs who had been elected countrywide after the 2011 general elections.

In terms of gender representation, the men continue to dominate though the number of female MPs has risen from 22 in the 2011 to 2016 term to 30 female MPs after this year's elections.

Among those elected female MPs is Princess Kasune Zulu, Zambia's first lawmaker to openly declare that she is living with HIV.

She is the UPND's MP in Keembe Constituency.

The elections also saw a number of MPs who had lost their seats in 2011 returning to parliament after a five year absence.

Notable among them are Mubika Mubika (Shang'ombo), Douglas Syakalima (Siavonga) and Peter Daka (Msanzala).

However, one of the huge setbacks of the nation was the collapse of the referendum which was held alongside the general elections.

Very few Zambians voted in the referendum, failing to reach the 50% threshold to validate the process.

"It is very disappointing that the campaign for social and economic rights in the Bill of Rights was politicized. People were told that the Bill of Rights had gay rights and they shunned it. We lost a big opportunity," said Gerald Mutelo, the President of Democratic Governance and Human Rights Advocates on a live TV programme on TV1 recently.

Indeed, 2016 was a watershed moment in the political field in Zambia.

It is the year when many of those contentious clauses and articles were enacted into law, making the governance system more user friendly.

However, 2017 may not be as interesting as 2016.

But we wait and see how the political scene will unfold.

Like they say, in politics there is no dull moment.

Zambia Adopts New Electoral Rules, Sets Elections On 11 August

By Paul Shalala

President Lungu assenting to the Constitution Bill

Zambia has today adopted a new set of electoral laws that has set a new date for the forthcoming general elections and introduced what has been described as 'progressive clauses.'

This afternoon, Zambian President Edgar Lungu assented to the Constitution of Zambia Amendment Bill of 2015 which has come with several laws that had been eluding the Zambian people for decades.

Since the 1990s, Zambians had been submitting to countless Constitution Review Commissions to amend the electoral laws which date back to the colonial days.

Some of the laws Zambians have been seeking to be done away with include the first-past-the-post-takes-all electoral system and the appointment of a republican Vice President by the head of state.

Despite draft constitutions and reports being produced and circulated, successive governments have not been acting on the recommendations, rendering the whole constitution making process dead for years.

The signing ceremony was held this afternoon at the Chinese made National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka, a site where the Zambian head of state was inaugurated as the country's sixth President 12 months ago after winning a tightly contested poll following the demise of Michael Sata.

"There comes a time when people's cries on an issue must come to an end....... As leaders, we have to listen to the voice of the people..... When i was being sworn in as President last year, i promise to give you a new constitution and here it is," said President Lungu.

He also reiterated his desire to have the rest of the draft constitution be passed through a referendum that he has tied to the next general elections set for later this year.

When the bill was tabled before parliament at the end of 2015, the ruling Patriotic Front allied itself with the opposition MMD to gunner the much needed votes to pass the bill which was opposed by the opposition UPND, FDD and ADD.

And in his speech, President Lungu acknowledged the role the MMD parliamentarians played.

"The MMD gives me hope with its civic roles it played in the house," he said as MMD President Nevers Mumba who was seated in the VIP section of the stadium nodded his head.

Among the electoral reforms the new law has brought is the 50 plus one majoritarian election of a president and the Vice President Running mate clause.

The new laws have set second Thursday of August every after five years as the election date.

This means that this year, Zambians will vote for their new President, Members of Parliament and Councillors on 11th August.

In the old constitution, Zambia's Presidents had the power to set an election date which stakeholders had complained that it was being used to disadvantage the opposition.

Further, the law has also adopted dual citizenship, a concept that scores of Zambians have been crying for, especially those in the diaspora.

To the delight of many, the requirement for all presidential candidates to have both their parents being born in Zambia has been scrapped off.

This is a law that was passed in the 1990s which many say was targeted at Zambia's founding father Dr. Kenneth Kaunda from participating in elections after he lost the 1991 democratic elections.

Despite this milestone for good governance campaigners, several civil society organisations and opposition political parties were opposed to the adoption of these progressive laws through parliament.

Operating under a loose consortium calling itself the Grand Coalition on The Enactment of a People Driven Constitution, non-governmental organisations even picketed parliament to block the bill last year.

On 23rd October 2014 when the final draft constitution was released, government announced it will adopt the contentious closes through Parliament and later subject the whole document to a national referendum.

But the Grand Coalition opposed the move opting for a referendum to adopt the whole document before the general elections.

Even after the bill was passed by law makers, the Grand Coalition even called on President Lungu not to assent to it.

With the enactment of these laws, the bigger job of enacting the whole constitution still lies ahead.

Zambia Parliament in session

The Bill of Rights, whose review triggers a referendum, is yet to be put on the ballot and as promised by President Lungu, will be voted together with candidates for President, Members of Parliament and Councillors on 11th August.

In May 2015, Justice Minister Ngosa Simbyakula announced that government had appointed Commissioners of the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) as members of the Referendum Commission.

This means that the ECZ will conduct the 2016 General Elections simultaneously with the referendum on the constitution.

According to the Referendum Act, all Zambians in possession of the green National Registration Card are eligible to vote in the referendum which is usually conducted in a YES or NO fashion.

All Contentious Clauses Retained In Final Draft Constitution

Front cover of the Final Draft Constitution

By Paul Shalala

In this article, i will not dwell on the politics of whether the release of the Final Draft Constitution by Acting Justice Minister Dr Ngosa Simbyakula in parliament this morning is timely or not.

I will also not delve into the issue of the referendum as that process is dependent on the outcome of what Dr. Simbyakula has described as a 'consultative process.'

However, my article will focus on the clauses that Zambians have CONSISTENTLY and FAITHFULLY submitted to past processes like the Mvunga, Mungomba, Mwanakatwe, NCC and the Electoral Reforms Technical Committee with the hope of one day seeing them in their supreme law of the land.

By all standards, the just released Final Draft Constitution meets what people call 'a people's constitution' due to the fact that all the clauses considered contentious have been retained.

At the time when people were wondering whether the 50+1% majoritarian clause for election of the President would be upheld in the final constitution, the document has shown that the clause has been retained in Article 74 (1).

This article has been consistently submitted by Zambians in the past 40 years to various constitution review commissions.

The argument has been that Zambians want a 'popular' President who would be elected by a majority of the people either in a one off election or in a re-run if the 50+1% threshold is not achieved in the first round of a presidential election.

People's hopes for the majoritarian clause where dampened last year when then Patriotic Front Secretary General and then Justice Minister Wynter Kabimba openly opposed this clause painting a picture of the ruling party and government not being in support of the clause.

However, the now dissolved Technical Committee on Drafting the Republican Constitution seems to have defied all odds and included this 'popular' clause in line with the people's wish.

Another popular article that has been retained is Article 108 (1) which provides for a Vice President who is elected as a running mate to a Presidential candidate.

This is another clause whose proponents say it helps to avoid 'costly' Presidential by-elections in case of deaths or resignations of a sitting president as was the case in Zambia in 2008 when a presidential by-election was held when then President Levy Mwanawasa died.

This article has been held as a cost saving law that has been tried and tested in countries like Ghana where it has worked effectively.

The Final Draft Constitution has also adopted the mixed member representation electoral system in parliament where we will now have 150 elected Members of Parliament from the constituencies and 100 MPs elected through a party list submitted by participating political parties to the Electoral Commission of Zambia.

This means that Zambia will now have 250 elected MPs and 8 nominated MPs.

If finally adopted, this will be a new phenomenon in the Zambian political scene where MPs will be sent to Manda Hill through a two way election process as contained in Article 74 (2).

Zambians in the diaspora will be smiling when they hear that Article 18 of the final draft constitution has allowed dual citizenship in addition to the fact that any Zambian who acquires citizenship of another country will not automatically lose their Zambian citizenship.

Zambians living abroad have been calling for this law and finally it has come.

For the pro-life campaigners, its bad news for them as Article 28 (3) provides for capital punishment which is commonly known as death penalty.

Clause 2 of the same article has given a boost to Zambian pro-life campaigners like musician Kings Malembe Malembe as it has recognised life as beginning at conception as opposed to the more liberal definition of life beginning at birth.

This means that any Zambian woman who aborts during pregnancy, kills a human being.

This article was an emotive one as i remember during the National Constitution Convention in April 2013, the clergy were divided on whether to retain the death penalty or not.

The swearing in of the President immediately after the announcement of Presidential results by the Chief Justice will now be done away with as Article 103 (2) now proposes the ceremony to take place after 7 days.

This is because Article 83 (1) provides that General Elections will now be held on the second Thursday of August every after 5 years and swearing in of a new head of state will take place on a Tuesday which is 7 days after the announcement of the results.

In the current constitution, a new President must be sworn in within 24 hours of being declared winner of a presidential election even when losers have filed petitions.

The terms that an individual can serve as a president have been maintained at two as confirmed in Article 104 (3).

For Cabinet, the mostly suggested way of choosing Cabinet has been proposed in the draft constitution.

Article 114 suggests the the President will now appoint people from outside parliament to constitute Cabinet which will now include Provincial Ministers as explained in Article 111.

In terms of devolution of powers, the draft constitution has proposed the establishment of Provincial Assemblies which will include MPs, Chiefs, Mayors, Council Chairpersons, and several other stakeholders.

Article 181 explains that these Assemblies will have their own Speakers and function like Parliaments.

For those who have been critical of government contracting debts which they are not happy with, Article 249 (2) may make them smiling as all loans and grants will now be subjected to parliamentary approval before government officials append their signatures to loan agreements.

In the area of politics, reigning chiefs have been given the opportunity to contest elections for councillor or to Provincial Assemblies without them being forced to abdicate their thrones.

However, according to Article 205 of the Final Draft Constitution, chiefs will have to leave their chieftaincy if they are to run for parliament.

In the current 1991 Constitution as amended in 1996, chiefs are barred from active politics.

Article 200 provides for the Local Government Equalisation Fund which is expected to help local authorities function well in as far as funding their operations is concerned.

This fund will see the central government providing money to District Councils to boost their dwindling financial base.

In Article 3, the Final Draft Constitution proposes that Zambia continues to remain a multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-religious and unitary state.

And in the preamble, the 1996 declaration of Zambia as a Christian Nation by then President Frederick Chiluba has been retained.

For my media colleagues, this final draft constitution has guaranteed freedom of the media in Article 36 and in Article 35, freedom of information for all Zambians has also been guaranteed.

On the emotive issue of land, the document has retained the vesting of all land in the President as contained in Article 296 (1).

According to Article, 297 (2), the final draft constitution has also maintained the duo classification of land as being state and customary land.

The above articles are some of those i have quickly noticed as some that Zambians really wanted to see in the constitution and true to the words of the former Chairman of the Technical Committee Justice Annel Silungwe,what the people of Zambia submitted is what has come out in the final draft constitution.