Redraft constitutional review bill - stakeholders
By Florian Kaijage
9th April 2011
Public opinion on the Constitutional Review Act, 2011 debate, which kicked off here yesterday, hinged on major changes to ensure the nation was managed according to good governance principles.
It was proposed that the Bill be rewritten starting with the Bill's title, which did not reflect the need to have a new constitution, as expressed by President Jakaya Kikwete and Constitutional Affairs and Justice Minister Celina Kombani.
University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) senior lecturer Dr Ezaveli Lwaitama told the gathering that the Bill title ‘The Constitutional Review Bill 2011' did not mean that the process would result in the new Constitution.
He proposed that the title should read: ‘The preparation of the new Constitution Bill 2011'.
Dr Lwaitama also said it was wrong to stipulate in the Bill that the president was empowered to appoint members of Constituent Assembly, who would pass the proposed new Constitution.
"The president should not appoint members of the Constituent Assembly because this is a very special assembly with a special task and, therefore, it has to be elected by people," said the university don.
Jane Magigita from the civil society criticised politicising the constitutional making process and defeating the good intended purpose.
She argued the proposal that the president should have powers to convert the current ordinary Parliament into a Constituent Assembly was extremely dangerous.
"Let the Constituent Assembly be separate from the current one because if that is allowed the Parliament will lean on party inclination," she said.
Magigita added that the Bill should also state clearly what would follow if it happened that after the referendum, members of the public voted no to the new Constitution as the proposed Bill was silent on the matter.
Bernard Mg'ong'o proposed that the local authorities should not be involved at all, saying they had been the root cause of unnecessary chaos during past elections.
He noted that there must be a free electoral Commission to oversee the referendum instead of using the current one, which leaned on the ruling party, which led the government.
Activist Deus Kibamba said the Bill had at least 105 deficiencies and one of them was lack of a timeframe and deadline of various activities.
Kibamba noted that it was evident that the proposed date (June 1, 2011) for the commencement of the coming Act was not realistic because of the short time provided and, therefore, there was a need for revisiting that.
Retired Justice John Mkwawa said the most important thing in the process was the diligence of the people to be appointed for the purpose.
He added that the current electoral Commission had capacity to execute the duties related to elections although there was a certain level of mistrust from the public and he proposed the Commission be overhauled if necessary to save public interests.
In general, a number of people were critical of excessive presidential powers or any other single body.
They also proposed that it was not wise to exclude political party leaders from taking part in the process.
The public hearing is under the parliamentary standing Committee on Constitution, Justice and Administration.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN