By SIMON MUNTEMBA
A WRONG constitutional reference and intransigent presiding officer yesterday exploded into one of the most ill-tempered sittings of Parliament that led to a confrontation and subsequent walk out by Patriotic Front members of Parliament.
The drama started when leader of the opposition, Brian Mundubile noted that the State House vote was based on a 1996 constitutional provision that was repealed in 2016, and was therefore unconstitutional.
The provision mandates State House to provide overall governance of the people of Zambia and ensuring that the sovereignty and territorial Integrity of the nation are upheld for the sole purpose of protecting and safeguarding the interests of the country, its citizens and residents. The mandate is derived from Articles 33 and 34 of the Constitution of Zambia, Act No. 18 of 1996.
But presiding officer, 2nd deputy speaker Moses Moyo insisted that debate would continue in spite of the wrong constitutional reference.
The PF MPs would have none of it.
The PF MPs then congregated in front of the presiding officer demanding a ruling over the wrong constitutional reference.
Mr Mundubile demanded that the debate be deferred to another day but the UPND MPs insisted that they procced leading to the walk out of PF MPs.
In an interview after the walkout, Mr Mundubile said they decided to walk out because PF MPs did not want to be part of an illegality.
“We had raised an issue concerning one provision of the constitution which they had quoted. They quoted from the repealed constitution of 1996 and they were drawing the mandate of the President from a particular provision of the Constitution which didn’t exist.
“We asked them to defer the debate to a later date but they insisted that they proceed, we protested because we didn’t want to be part of the illegality,” Mr Mundubile said.
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