President Mwanawasa backtracks on constituent assembly

In what has been described as a policy u-turn, Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa has declared that this year's general election will be held under the current constitution rather than a new document prepared by a Constituent Assembly as church and NGO activists have demanded. In a nationwide radio and television address on Thursday night, Mwanawasa said there would be "no short cuts" in the constitutional reform process. "A referendum and national census will have to be held before a new constitution is enacted, and government shall fund and facilitate the whole process as a major stakeholder." Mwanawasa's announcement appeared to backtrack on a promise made last month that "if it's the wish of the people to have a new constitution before this year's elections, and a constituent assembly, we will implement the people's wishes". The Oasis Forum, a lobby group comprising the Law Association of Zambia, the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia, the Zambia Episcopal Conference and the Council of Churches of Zambia, said it was not surprised by Mwanawasa's about-turn. "When Mr Mwanawasa said a new constitution would be ready ahead of the elections, we told people to take his statements with a grain of salt, and we are now vindicated ... but we shall fight on," Oasis Forum spokesman Reverend Japhet Ndhlovu told IRIN. The forum mounted countrywide demonstrations last year to push for a new constitution before the elections, and in newspaper adverts urged Zambians to kick MPs who had voted against a constituent assembly out of office. Government spokesman Vernon Mwaanga told IRIN on Friday, "There is no way a new and legally binding constitution would be ready before the end of this year because laws have to be amended and debated in parliament and all this takes time and money." Fred Mutesa, a political analyst from the University of Zambia's faculty of development studies, said a relatively fair election due within the next six months was still possible, even without a new constitution. "What I think the Oasis Forum and other advocates of a new constitution should do is press Mwanawasa for a new electoral law, at least." During the opening of parliament on 13 January, Mwanawasa, a lawyer turned politician, said it would be possible to make amendments to the electoral law to make it acceptable to all, but gave no further details. NGO activists and opposition parties have argued that the current constitution and electoral law placed too much power in the hands of the president, and the "first past the post" system enabled the election of a head of state on the slimmest of margins. A regularly cited example is Mwanawasa himself, who won the 2001 election with around 28 percent of the total vote in a ballot deemed unfair by the Atlanta-based Carter Centre, the European Union (EU) and local poll monitors. The Oasis Forum have urged a constitutional amendment to ensure that all future presidents are elected with more than 50 percent of the vote. A government-appointed Constitution Review Commission came to the same conclusion last year, but its draft document was rejected by Mwanawasa.