Amendment Bill No.2 which was passed by the National Assembly last week has now been transmitted to the Senate.
In the Senate, the Bill will go through the same stages it went through in the National Assembly.
Making the announcement, Senate President Mabel Chinomona confirmed receiving the Bill last week.
‘’I have to inform the Senate that I have received the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 2) Bill [H. B. 23A, 2019] from the National Assembly,’’ she said.
The Bill has raised dust with various local human rights organisations as well as the international committee.
In a press conference, MDC-T leader Douglas Mwonzora told the media that he was going to engage Zanu PF over the Bill to try and make them see reason.
Mwonzora also told Ruvheneko Parirenyatwa that he is opposing the scrapping of the running mates clause and the scrapping of the judges interviews in the Bill.
The MDC-T leader also happens to be a Senator and has come under fire in the previous weeks following his party decision to endorse Amendment Bill No.1.
According to legal watchers, the Bill was not properly before Parliament as it was from a different Parliament (8th Parliament of Zimbabwe).
Veritas Zimbabwe advised that from its view, the Bill should have been started afresh by the 9th Parliament.
The legal and Parliamentary watchdog (Veritas Zimbabwe) is also not happy with the way the National Assembly passed Amendment Bill No.2.
According to veritas, legislators proposed and introduced substantial amendments to the original Bill and therefore could not pass them instantly.
’As we have seen, most of the changes which the National Assembly made to the Bill in its Committee Stage materially alter clauses of the original Bill or add new clauses which were never in the original Bill. Hence, they are unconstitutional because they were made without going through the procedure laid down in section 328 of the Constitution.
‘’As a result, the clauses which have been changed and the clauses which have been added to the Bill have not been properly passed by Parliament. This will remain so no matter how many Members vote for the Bill in its final reading today,’’ Veritas said.
