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NewsDay

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Partisanship stalls constitution-making process — Mwonzora

Politics
Copac co-chairperson Douglas Mwonzora on Monday hinted the pre-drafting stage of the national constitution could be stalled by political bickering and partisan thinking among the players. Mwonzora told NewsDay on the sidelines of the Copac pre-drafting workshop at the Great Zimbabwe Hotel yesterday, parties to the Global Political Agreement wanted the country’s supreme law to […]

Copac co-chairperson Douglas Mwonzora on Monday hinted the pre-drafting stage of the national constitution could be stalled by political bickering and partisan thinking among the players.

Mwonzora told NewsDay on the sidelines of the Copac pre-drafting workshop at the Great Zimbabwe Hotel yesterday, parties to the Global Political Agreement wanted the country’s supreme law to suit their individual needs.

“It is not going to be an easy road and I do not foresee the workshop going smoothly. This is the most difficult process in the constitution-making exercise,” said Mwonzora who doubles as MDC-T spokesperson.

“There are fundamental agreements that have to be reached today, but legislators are reasoning in a partisan manner. Yet, this is a process issue and it depends on agreements. We have to agree on constitutional principles, the framework, verify issues from constitutional outreach meetings and see if we can omit or not some things that were gathered in the outreach meetings, or include some things which were not said in the outreach meetings.”

He, however, expressed optimism they would overcome their differences to come up with a document that is not “a winner-takes-all”.

“The document drafted should not please any political party. It has to make all parties both happy and sad. It has to have things that are liked or are not liked by political parties. We want to keep as close as possible to the views expressed by people during outreach meetings. That will be a transparent constitution.”

His counterpart, Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana (Zanu PF), concurred adding reaching the drafting process was a “milestone achievement”.

“This is a milestone achievement in the constitution-making process.

We are actually moving to the writing process. It is difficult to meet the set deadlines. This is a legal and political process. What we may have targeted may not go as planned,” he said.

President Robert Mugabe has repeatedly indicated the country is likely to hold a referendum for the new constitution this year ahead of general elections sometime next year.