MDC leader Welshman Ncube yesterday warned Zanu PF and MDC-T against “tampering” with the draft constitution, saying they risked reversing a process that was almost complete.
“We have debated the draft constitution expensively and have resolved to endorse and adopt the draft constitution as the draft to be taken to the Second All-Stakeholders’ Conference and then to the referendum,” Ncube told journalists yesterday after his party’s national executive committee meeting in Harare.
“As a party, we have adopted the document as an only possible compromise. It is not the best document as it was crafted under give-and-take conditions in the inclusive government,” Ncube said.
The MDC leader said his party would not tolerate any changes to be made on the document as all concessions on contentious clauses were made with the blessings of party leaders.
“With this background, it should be accepted that when people signed the draft, they were doing it on a representative capacity on behalf of their leaders,” he said.
“It is therefore impossible to seek renegotiating of any section under whatever forum.”
The MDC-T and Zanu PF are reportedly unhappy with some sections of the draft and they would want them amended through negotiations.
The two parties are yet to make their positions clear on the draft released last month.
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Zanu PF said it was happy with 97% of the draft, while the MDC-T has called for a ‘Yes’ vote in the referendum although its top leadership is yet to make its position public.
Ncube said the proposed constitution would improve democracy even though it was not a perfect document.
“We are happy with the compromise, we regard it as an incremental gain to democracy,” he said.
“We will not participate in any discussion to delay the process.
“There will be options to relook at some of the clauses after the next elections.”
The draft took almost three years to complete because of haggling between the three parties in the inclusive government.
