TEMPERS FLY AT POLITICAL BILL 'INDABA'

Mon, 28 Aug 2017 10:31:41 +0000

By Bennie Mundando

TEMPERS flared as an attempt to seek clarifications on some articles contained in the Political Parties Bill by the Ministry of Justice were out-rightly rejected by “small” political parties during consultative meeting at Mika Lodge as the document has been labelled a ‘poison’ which would annihilate the majority of political parties and favour only the UPND and PF.

The meeting, which was supposed to end on Saturday continued yesterday as no agreement had been arrived at on party funding, registration, and the appointment and composition of the political parties’ board.

Sections which attracted sharp reaction from stakeholders include section 3 part 1(a) and (b), which provides for the creation of a political parties’ board comprising the chairperson, a representative from each of the three church mothe bodies, the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants (ZICA), Ministry of Finance and Home Affairs which are to be appointed by the Republican President and ratified by Parliament while the vice- president of the board will be elected by the members.

The establishment of a political parties’ fund under section 36 for purposes of providing financial support only to political parties with seats in the National Assembly is also one of the provisions which created confusion while requirements for the registration of a political party under section 21 also raised eyebrows.

The Zambia Centre of Interparty Dialogue (ZCID) yesterday told the Daily Nation that sections 3, 16, and 21 had created problems as they were seen a direct assault on democracy and a deterrence to political parties which did not have enough resources.

ZCID spokesperson Edwin Sakala said it did not make any sense that while section 36 excluded other political parties which did not have MPs from accessing funds, article 21 exclusively demanded that political parties should have head offices and five branch offices across the country with not less than 100 registered voters.

“Of course it is true that political parties have fought over this matter and have failed to come to a conclusion because smaller political parties feel that if these three sections are allowed to pass in their current form, they will be annihilated as the race will be for the two political parties, the UPND and PF who already have resources.

“Apart from that, when you look at the membership of the political parties’ board, opposition political parties have all been excluded. The Republican President has been given the powers to single-handedly choose who should sit on that board and surely you do not expect him to appoint people who are not loyal to him and so, opposition political parties will have no say on matters that affect them because they will not be represented. This will be another branch of the ruling party,” Mr. Sakala said