Online Reporter
Nyore Madzianike, Senior Reporter
THE number of Members of Parliament who have registered to contribute to the ongoing debate on the Constitutional Amendment (No. 3) Bill (CAB3) during Tuesday’s sitting is expected to influence the timeline of when legislators will proceed to finally vote for the proposed law, a Cabinet minister has said.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said he would decide on ending the Second Reading debate and proceed to the committee stage and later voting after Tuesday’s sitting.
Parliament adjourned on Friday with about 110 legislators having debated since the Bill reached the Second Reading stage.
Minister Ziyambi described CAB3 as the most debated Bill in the recent history of Parliament.
Most of the legislators who debated, including those from the opposition, were in support of the proposed amendments.
They said the proposed piece of legislation, including extending the Presidential term to seven years from five, will allow continuation of developmental projects and reduce costs of holding elections.
In an interview, Minister Ziyambi said: “On Tuesday, we will allow those that want to debate, but once we feel that all the MPs that are willing to debate have debated, I will then give my responding speech, addressing issues that were raised by honourable members, and that will pave the way for us now to move to the committee stage of the Bill.”
Minister Ziyambi said progress to the next stage would depend on how the debate unfolds on Tuesday, adding that most MPs were repeating what had already been debated.
“It is dependent on how the debate goes on Tuesday,” he said.
“As you can see, honourable MPs are now repeating what others have said and we now see a slowing down in the appetite to debate.
“So, hopefully, if all goes well, maybe on Tuesday we may have fewer MPs willing to debate and then we can proceed.
“But it is not in my hands, it is in the hands of those that want to debate.”
Minister Ziyambi said he will assess the number of legislators who registered to debate before deciding on the way forward.
He said if fewer legislators are willing to debate, then he will adjourn the debate and proceed to the committee stage.
Minister Ziyambi attributed the high level of participation to the extensive public consultations that were conducted before the Bill was taken to Parliament.
“We deliberately decided to have that direction because if you recall when we did public consultations, in the past we used to have one public consultation per province,” he said.
“This time around we increased the involvement. We had one public consultation per administrative district, which means we deployed a large number of our honourable members to participate in the public consultation.”
Minister Ziyambi said the 90-day consultations conducted by Parliament encouraged legislators to take a keen interest in debating the Bill.
He described the process as beneficial to both democracy and law-making.
“You can notice that the majority of our MPs, when they stand up to debate, they will emphasise that I am speaking on behalf of those that I represent and they will cite proceedings of the public consultation,” he said.
“We think it is healthy for constitutional democracy.
“It is healthy for the law-making process because it allows us to refine the legislation and come up with a Bill that has been scrutinised thoroughly by Members of Parliament.”
Following the Second Reading debate, the Bill will move on to the committee stage where MPs will then suggest amendments.
After the committee stage, voting will take place, before the Bill goes for the Third Reading.
The Bill will then be passed to the Senate, where it will go through a process similar to that at the National Assembly.
After the parliamentary processes, the Bill will be sent to the President for his assent and then gazetted.
