Lissu: People's trust crucial in constitutional review bill

BY DEVOTA MWACHANG`A

7th October 2013

Chadema chief whip Tundu Lissu addresses press conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday. (Photo: Selemani Mpochi)

The leading opposition Chama cha Demekrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema) has said President Kikwete’s call for dialogue on the review of the country’s constitution will only have meaning if he does not sign the Constitutional Review Amendment Bill 2013.

Opposition camp Chief Whip Tundu Lissu, made the remarks in Dar es Salaam yesterday during a news conference just few days after President Kikwete called for a dialogue on the Constitutional Review Amendment Bill 2013 in his end of the month speech.

“If the President wants to gain wananchi’s trust in this matter he should not sign the bill. If he signs, it means we who want it re-discussed, are good for nothing,” Lissu cautioned.

Lissu, the Member of Parliament for Iramba-East, accused the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi of monopolising the creation of the new Constitution. 
According to him, if CCM does not assume an inclusive approach, the nation will not accept the new constitution, saying chaos is likely to erupt.

Responding to President Kikwete’s dismissal of his comments which claimed the President had ignored proposed names for the Constitution Review Commission calling the accusation “malicious, pure lies, hypocritical, agitating and highly divisive,” Lisu said the matter of the President’s omission of names was not raised by him (Lissu) but by the Constitution, Legal Affairs and Governance Committee meeting.

He said that it is representatives from the Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT), the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC) and the Tanzania Federation of Disabled People’s Organizations (Shivyawata) who told the Constitution, Legal Affairs and Governance Committee that the President had overlooked names presented.

“For instance, Shivyawata, said that they did not propose Al Shayma Kweigir to represent them in the commission, yet Kweigir was the one the President appointed to represent Shivyawata,” Lisu said.

Lissu is also of the opinion that Zanzibar was not involved in the process that the commission was to collect views from the isles following some argument and suspension of the trip and hence views of the people of Zanzibar were never incorporated.

The making of the new constitution started in earnest when Parliament enacted the Constitutional Review Act in 2011.

The Constitutional Review Commission was appointed in May 2012 and in July 2012, it started collecting views that led to the first draft that was unveiled in June this year.
 

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN