Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Renowned constitutional lawyer John Sangwa says government is being arrogant to insist that people will not turn up to vote if a constitution referendum is held this year.
Mr. Sangwa has argued that alike in an election, in a constitution referendum a voter comes out to either like the constitution or dislike the document by voting yes or no respectively.
He has told Qfm News in an interview that he is therefore of the view that even only 5 million people out of Zambia’s entire 14 million people population can participate in a constitution referendum.
Mr. Sangwa says this is because out of the 5 million people that turns up for the referendum, only 3 million will be required to vote yes to carry the constitution through a decision which will be binding on the country’s entire population.
John Sangwa
He says he also finds it arrogant for government to think that it knows what the people of Zambia want with respect to their aspiration and wish that they have a new constitution.
The renowned constitutional lawyer has suggested that if government insists that it knows what they people of Zambia want it must also put the entire draft constitution to a referendum.
He says this is especially that no one has done research to confirm how exactly people would turn up to vote if a constitution referendum is called this year.
And Mr. Sangwa has observed that it is wrong for the government to link the Referendum Act to constitution making when in fact the Act has nothing to do with the latter.
He thinks that government is in this case making a mistake to amend the Referendum Act with the view of adopting the Bill of Rights through a referendum alongside the 2016 general elections.