By Correspondent
Harare lawyer Doug Coltart says the proposed Constitutional Amendments are an existential threat which citizens should resist totally.
Coltart says the 90 days available before the Bill is presented before Parliament is an opportunity for residents to fight back.
“Constitutional amendments represent an existential threat to democracy in Zimbabwe.
“You open the door to Parliament continually extending their tenure and never allowing us to ever go to an election ever again.
“So what can we do about it?
“Well, we have 90 days before this bill can be tabled to parliament.
“Those 90 days started running on Monday.
“So there’s a very key window now for each and every one of us to engage our MPs, to go along to public consultations, make sure that your MP knows that you’re not happy about this and that you do not support this bill.
“And then we need to take action”, he says.
Coltart said there is need to speak out and to use the constitution and constitutional rights enshrined there.
“We have to defend our constitution and to defend our constitutional order.
“We need to demonstrate.
All The Amendments Are Sinister
The lawyer was very critical of the raft of proposed changes.
He says the whole plot centres around consolidating power in the president and to strip citizens of any opportunity to have a say in how the country is governed.
“We will no longer vote for the president, it’s parliament who will vote for the president.
“So the president appoints his friends to parliament and then parliament then elects the president.
“It’s just this ridiculous circular arrangement where a group of politicians all just endorsing one another, totally excluding the people.
However, government has defended the amendments as a way of bringing stability and reinforcing the country’s democracy.
It argues that Zimbabwe is not unique in extending presidential terms to ensure stability.
Rwanda extended terms under President Paul Kagame, citing development continuity.
Uganda and Algeria have also amended constitutional provisions to sustain reformist agendas.
Pro-amendment arguments have also cited Singapore’s long-term policy continuity under stable leadership propelling it into a global economic powerhouse.
Critical Voices
However, equally positive arguments have ridiculed the comparisons.
Phillani Zamchiya, a political analyst contends that elections are fundamental.
“Elections matter not because they are convenient, but because they make power vulnerable.
“They force leaders to return regularly to the people for judgment.
“Stability, in this framing, is not earned through performance. It is manufactured through insulation.
Coltart has since called for proactive action from residents if the amendments are to be blocked.
“We need to use all of the rights that we have to stand up and come together as a nation.”
“(We have to) say, we want to have a say in the future of our nation.
“We are not going to let a group of politicians take that away from us and create a ridiculous circular political system where they just keep choosing each other forever.
