VICE PRESIDENT George Kunda has said Government will begin legislative processes which precede the submission of a Bill to Parliament to alter the Republican Constitution.

He was speaking yesterday when the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) chairperson, Chifumu Banda officially handed over the draft constitution Bill and final report to Government for onward transmission to Parliament for enactment.

"Government recognises that many of the provisions of the final draft constitution which were adopted by the conference involve extensive reforms before they can be implemented," he said.

Mr Kunda who is also Minister of Justice said such provisions also have significant financial implications which Government needs to carefully plan for before they are enacted by Parliament.

He cited the NCC's decision to increase the composition of the National Assembly by adjusting the number of constituency based seats from the current 150 to 225 as one of the issues that have serious financial implications.

Mr Kunda said the NCC also introduced 30 seats to be filled on the basis of the proportional presentation segment of the mixed member presentation system and maintained 10 seats of nominated members of Parliament, making a total of 266 members when the Speaker is included.

"In addition, the conference adopted the provisions to establish the Parliamentary Service Commission and the Gender Equality Commission. Further, the conference approved and adopted provisions to establish a constitutional court and a court of appeal among the superior courts of the Judiciary," he said.

Mr Kunda said the introduction of the two courts in the judicial hierarchy also have significant financial implications for which careful planning must be done.

He said Government will take necessary measures to prepare for the implementation of those important constitutional provisions and present to Parliament a Bill to enact provisions of the adopted final draft constitution at an appropriate time.

The Vice-President said Government will, at the same time, prepare to submit to a referendum a Bill containing provisions that seek to alter the Bill of Rights and Article 79 of the current constitution including all those provisions of the Mung'omba draft constitution on which the conference failed to agree.
He said if the provisions are approved by Zambians in the referendum, the Bill will then be submitted to Parliament for enactment of the approved constitutional provisions.

"I wish to remind all of us who are gathered here and the nation that the National Constitutional Conference Act No. 19 of 2007 will stand repealed tomorrow (today), Tuesday August 31, 2010 and the membership of all the members of the NCC will expire," he said.

Mr Kunda said this is in accordance with the provisions of the NCC Act No. 19 as amended.
He said however that some members of the secretariat will continue in office to wind up the affairs of the conference until November 30 this year when their term of office will expire in line with the provisions of the NCC Act.

Mr Kunda also said it is misleading for some sections of society to suggest that the NCC failed the people of Zambia when it considered and rejected some provisions in the Mung'omba draft constitution.
He said some people have criticised the conference for not adopting every provision in the Mung'omba draft constitution and yet its mandate, as specified in the NCC Act, was clear.

"The conference was faithful to that mandate and it is, therefore, misleading to suggest that the conference, in taking the informed decisions that it took on all provisions and in rejecting some of those provisions, failed the people of Zambia," the Vice President said.

Mr Kunda said the NCC was to examine and deliberate on the provisions of the entire Mun'gomba draft constitution and report.
He said in considering and deliberating the Mung'omba draft constitution, the conference was mandated to vary, confirm or remove any provision of the draft constitution as members considered appropriate.

Mr Kunda said in line with the NCC Act, all provisions of the final draft constitution that were agreed to and adopted by the conference should be submitted to his office for subsequent presentation to Parliament for enactment.

He said the conference also decided that provisions that would alter the Bill of Rights and Article 79 of the current constitution should be referred to a referendum for determination by Zambians as specified by the current constitution.

Mr Kunda said the NCC process that ended yesterday began in 2007 and Government responded to the recommendation made by the Mung'omba Constitutional Review Commission that the new draft constitution should be adopted by a constituency assembly, a constitutional conference or any other popular body that would represent people's views.

He said the NCC was constituted after enactment of the NCC Act No.19 of 2007 to enhance participation of people in the formulation of their new constitution and comprised 542 Zambians of various backgrounds who represented different interest groups.

Mr Kunda paid tribute to late President Mwanawasa under whose leadership the NCC was constituted.
He also paid tribute to President Banda who supported the adoption process from its inception and ensured that it was concluded successfully.

"This is inspite of the incessant attacks on the constitution adoption process from those who unsuccessfully attempted to derail and discredit the process," he said.

Mr Kunda commended the conference on the high quality of the final draft constitution it adopted after taking on board some of the submissions from the public on the initial NCC draft document.
He said the final draft constitution compares favourably with those of other countries worldwide.

"I attribute the adoption of this high quality document to the wealth expertise that was evident among members of the conference," he said.

Earlier, Mr Banda said other than the Bill of Rights, there were five other articles that were referred to the referendum for Zambians to decide upon.
These included Article 64 (1) which provides for progressive realisation of economic, social and cultural rights; Article 79(1) which provides for electoral systems for Presidential, National Assembly and Local Government elections and Article 143(2) paragraph (1) which provides for the legislative powers and other functions of the National Assembly.

Others were Article 146(8) paragraph (a) which provides for the tenure of office and vacation of office of members of the National Assembly and Article 273(3) paragraph (a) on borrowing by Government.

Mr Banda said while Zambia currently has a two-term limitation for the office of President, the Mung'omba draft constitution did not entrench the limitation but the NCC has entrenched the provision so that Parliament could not amend it.

He said both the current constitution and Mung'omba draft constitution did not provide for national economic planning which the NCC provided for in its final draft document.

Mr Banda thanked the Vice-President for his consistent support to the constitution-making process from inception to date.

"We are grateful that despite your busy schedule, you always found time to attend meetings of the National Constitutional Conference both at committee and plenary levels," he said.