Source: CAB3 Senate amendments sail through – herald
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi gives his remarks at a special Parliament sitting in Harare yesterday. — Picture: Joseph ManditswaraFarirai Machivenyika and Nyore Madzianike
Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3 will now be transmitted to President Mnangagwa for assent and signature after the National Assembly yesterday adopted amendments proposed by Senate last week.
The National Assembly, which was recalled from recess by President Mnangagwa last Friday to consider Senate’s proposed amendments, voted 226 to 41 in favour of the changes.
Speaking to journalists after the adjournment of the House, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said the Bill would now be sent to the President for assent.
“What will happen now is that Parliament will transmit the Bill to His Excellency for his assent and signature. Thereafter, it will be gazetted and will become part of our Constitution,” he said.
Minister Ziyambi said the timing of the assent would depend on when the President receives the Bill.
“His Excellency, normally assents to Bills as and when he gets them,” he said.
Minister Ziyambi said some of the amendments proposed by the Senate included Clause 3, which provides for the election of the President.
“The Senate has refined Section 92, Subsection 5, which governs the conduct of that election in the form that the National Assembly passed.
“The subsection provided that ZEC would preside over the election and that the procedure would follow the standing orders of Parliament.
“The amendment provides, instead, that the election shall be conducted by ZEC in accordance with the electoral law and the standing orders. The refinement, Honourable Chair, is one of precision,” said Minister Ziyambi.
He explained that ZEC will conduct the election, not merely preside over it, adding that an election of this constitutional importance should rest not on the standing orders of Parliament alone, but also the electoral law, which will be aligned to the manner in which the President is elected in Parliament, “and the amendment secures that footing”.
“I, therefore, move that the amendment be adopted,” Minister Ziyambi said. Earlier, Minister Ziyambi said Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3 lays the foundation for the country’s future development.
“The law that has been made will enable the progressive building and development of this country,” he said.
“What was decided here, Mr Speaker, was decided not for today but for those who will come after us, the beautiful Zimbabweans not yet born who will one day live under it.
“History will vindicate them, for what is done for posterity is not judged by the present but by the verdict of the years to come.”
Minister Ziyambi thanked legislators for the work they undertook from the time the Bill was gazetted.
“Honourable members have carried this Bill all the way from the first reading through the second reading debate, through its examination clause by clause to the confirmation of the Senate’s amendments, a legislative process that gives credit to Parliament,” he said.
Minister Ziyambi also commended the House for reconvening at short notice to consider the Senate’s amendments after Parliament had adjourned for recess two weeks ago.
“Nothing in that is taken for granted, Mr Speaker Sir, and the Honourable House should never take it for granted.
They came and came to work. That is the final proof of a commitment to national duty that no words of mine can improve upon because they came, Mr Speaker, and because they finished the job that they started. The House is now free of the Bill.
“When Honourable members return from their recess, they will return to a clear table; the matter that called them back is settled and behind them and they may take up the rest of the pressing business of the House that gave way to it.
“What the House has done, Mr Speaker, is its constitutional duty; it has made law, that is the one task the Constitution places in the hands of this Honourable House and of no other, and in discharging it, the House has done the highest thing a Parliament can do,” he said.
Among the proposed changes contained in the Bill are the extension of the electoral cycle from five years to seven years, the creation of a Zimbabwe Delimitation Commission responsible for setting electoral boundaries, the election of the President by Parliament and the transfer of management of the voters’ roll from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to the Registrar-General’s Office.
Following the National Assembly’s adoption of the Senate amendments, the Bill now awaits Presidential assent before it can be gazetted and become part of the Constitution.
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