Pundits expect President Jakaya Kikwete to blackball the Katiba Review
Bill due to disagreement over the role of the Presidency in appointing
members of a proposed "Constituent Assembly." PHOTO | FILE
In Summary
On Thursday, drawing experience from the
appointment of members of the Constitution Review Commission (CRC),
opposition Camp Chief Whip Tundu Lissu said the President should not be
left to appoint the 166 members of the Constituent Assembly.
Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania
Constitution Forum wants President Jakaya Kikwete to intervene in the
constitution-making process, citing concerns that the eagerly-awaited
constituent assembly may not produce a document that serves all
Tanzanians.
The group has asked the head of state not to
endorse the Bill that Parliament passed last week after opposition MPs
walked out after a scuffle with the House security team.
The protest came after Deputy Speaker Job Ndugai sent out the leader of the official opposition in parliament, Mr Freeman Mbowe.
The request to President Kikwete came at a
symposium to discuss the constitution-making process. More than 200
people attended the meeting, including experts in constitution matters.
The chairperson of the Forum, Mr Deus Kibamba,
expressed dismay at the composition of the Constituent Assembly, which
will include all members of parliament from the United Republic of
Tanzania and Zanzibar House of Representatives.
“Tanzanians do not want legislators in the
Constituent Assembly because the powers to determine how our
constitution should bein the hands of citizens, not lawmakers,” Mr
Kibamba said.
MPs should be left to enjoy their allowances in Dodoma and Zanzibar, he added, and not be allowed to “butcher” the constitution.
Mr Kibamba said his team was contemplating a
meeting with the head of state in the hope of advising him how best the
legislators could amend the current Constitution Review (Amendment) Bill
so as to weed out politicians in the yet to be formed Constituent
Assembly.
The move comes barely a week after the august
House turned into a theatre of the absurd as opposition MPs protested
against the tabling of the Constitutional Review (Amendment) Bill, 2013.
On Thursday, drawing experience from the
appointment of members of the Constitution Review Commission (CRC),
opposition Camp Chief Whip Tundu Lissu said the President should not be
left to appoint the 166 members of the Constituent Assembly.
He dismissed as “undemocratic” the President’s powers to appoint members from institutions.
Yesterday, Professor Chris Peter Maina of the
University of Dar es Salaam said the composition of the Constituent
Assembly, as things stand, would give politicians from the ruling party
an advantage when it came to making decisions in the assembly.
The Bill proposes that all 357 MPs in the United Republic of
Tanzania and 81 representatives of the Zanzibar House of Representatives
be part of the Constituent Assembly.
It further proposes that 166 others be appointed by the president--bringing the total membership to 604 members.
“It is easier for one party like CCM, which has
almost 72 percent of members, to dominate the Constituent Assembly,” he
says. “And this is where there is a problem, I think.”
Fielding questions from journalists on the
sidelines of the symposium, Mr Kibamba spoke of a looming crisis, and
said there was not enough time left to deliver a new constitution before
the next general election.
“If you look at what is happening in parliament
between politicians who have now gone to the extent of punching each
other,” he added, “it is obvious that we cannot have the new
constitution in the timeline given by the Constitution Review Commission
(CRC).
He suggested “minimum reforms” to the current
constitution to tide the country through the next General Election
should the scheduled deadline of April 2014 not be met.
Already, there is talk of the possibility that
President Kikwete’s tenure will be extended by two years to enable him
steer the process to the end.
Mr Kibamba’s concerns are not far from those of
the Civic United Front (CUF) Chairman, Mr Ibrahim Lipumba, who recently
claimed that his party had been secretly informed of a plot to postpone
the next General Election to 2017.
But State House dismissed the claim as “baseless and distortionary”.
CRC Chairman Joseph Warioba has expressed confidence at different forums that his team would work within the timeline.
Still, Mr Kibamba believes the country would be
well advised to start making minor amendments to the current
constitution in anticipation of the next General Election as was the
case in neighbouring Kenya in 2007.
source: The citizen
source: The citizen
