Why is it so hard to find some positives in the just closed constitution making process? No one could have expected that the debate could have swung one way no matter how hard the bargaining process may have been. But to imagine there are still voices that still think the process is a fraud and not having brought any positives is rather vexing.
Has not the cry for the 50% plus one vote been among the chief pushes for a people driven constitution (or is this the infamous animal driven constitution)? For a country that has had two Presidential by-elections owing to the death of the sitting Head of State, there could honestly have been little hullabaloo about having the running mate clause being passed.
That the appointment of cabinet ministers outside parliament did not pass simply underscores how much of a give and take process the constitution making process is. Naturally those that had an interest
in the constitution had the option of lobbying for their position.
On their part the ruling Patriotic Front had to climb down their high horse and reach out to the Movement for Multi Party Democracy to push their position as part of the bargaining process. No one denied the opposition United Party for National Development or other interest groups like the Grand Coalition to lobby the MMD who seemed trapped in the middle ground. In fact, the UPND should be grateful to MMD for tactfully passing the 50+1 which can work in their favour provided they climb down from the pompous and arrogant stand that makes them thing they are already in State House when they are still far away yet near to a sixth humiliating defeat.
To simply dismiss the entire process as a fraud on account of not having been adopted in its entirety is being unfair. After all there could still be another round for recourse with the referendum coming on yet another set of contentious issues like the Bill of Rights.
For now we have to make do with what is on the table and build on it.
Good day!
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