Wide Parly reforms proposed

Presenting the committee’s report in the plenary on Tuesday, committee co-chairperson Ms Dorcas Sibanda — who is Bulawayo Central legislator  — said delegates had proposed vary­ing amendments to Copac’s draft Consti­tution.

“Some delegates proposed that the Constitution should reduce the size of the House of Assembly to 150 (from 270 proposed in the draft) and that we should abolish Senate completely.”

It is understood that committee members felt the Senate was duplicat­ing the role of the House of Assembly and that the Bills it passes would still be sent to the President for assent even if the Upper House rejected them.

Said Ms Sibanda; “Others said 40 percent of all the MPs should be the youths while 40 percent of the women’s quarter should be reserved for young women aged between 21 and 35-years-old.
“Others also proposed that the con­stitution should introduce academic qualifications for MPs. They said it should make five Ordinary level qual­ifications a prerequisite for all MPs.”

She said the delegates said the Con­stitution was supposed to provide for constituencies that would exclusively be contested by women.
The Copac draft proposes that the House of Assembly should be com­posed of 210 elected members.
The draft proposes additional 60 seats reserved for women to be elected through proportional repre­sentation from the country’s 10 provinces based on the votes cast for candidates repre­senting political par­ties.

The Copac draft notes that for one to qualify as a House of Assembly candi­date, they should be registered as voters and be at least 21-years-old.
Ms Sibanda said some delegates pro­posed that the minimum age require­ment for Senators should be reduced to 35 years from 40.
“Others said we should increase the number of Senators to 92 (from 88 pro­posed by the draft) including provin­cial Governors and the Vice Presi­dents.” The draft

Constitution provides that Senate should be composed of 88 Senators of whom six would be elected from each province using proportional representation while 16 members would be chiefs drawn from the eight provinces minus the two metropolitan provinces.
There would also be eight provin­cial Governors from the eight provinces except metropolitan provinces.

The draft also provides that two Senators would represent people liv­ing with disabili­ties while the presi­dent and vice president of the coun­cil of chiefs would make up the com­position of Parliament’s Upper House.

Ms Sibanda said some delegates proposed that Parliament should have the power to dismiss the Clerk of Parliament.
The delegates differed on who was sup­posed to conduct elections for the post of the House of Assembly Speaker and the Senate president.
They proposed the Clerk of Parlia­ment or the Chief Justice should con­duct the elec­tions and swear the win­ners respectively. 
Various thematic committees met at the Second All Stakeholders Con­ference and came up with a raft of proposed amend­ments to the Copac draft.

Copac is now expected to consider the proposed amendments with a view to come up with a draft that would be taken to Par­liament for debate.
If Parliament passes the draft, it will then be taken to a referendum where Zim­babweans will be expected to endorse or reject it.