By CATHERINE NYIRENDA –

GOVERNMENT has said it is ready to table the constitution before Parliament in June, this year, if stakeholders are agreeable to adopting the new document through the House.
Justice Minister Ngosa Simbyakula told Parliament in a ministerial statement yesterday that if stakeholders were agreeable to the proposal, the first set of amendments would be taken to the House in the June sitting.
Dr Simbyakula told Parliament that amendments to the referendum Act, Cap 14 of the laws of Zambia had been approved by Cabinet.
“From the overwhelming responses we have received, Zambians have resolved that clauses such as the running mate, date of elections, and 50 per cent plus one, among others must be in the new constitution in readiness for the general election,” he said.
The challenges with going the referendum route was time and resources constraints as the cost of the exercise was almost the same as that of holding a general election.
“Besides that, there would be need to carry out an exercise to determine a number of eligible voters either by a fully-fledged exercise or sample census which would also require funds,” he said.
Dr Simbyakula said holding a referendum in 2016 would mean conducting the equivalent of two general elections in a space of nine months.
“Besides it would be easy to defeat a referendum as those stakeholders that had misgivings about some clauses would basically tell their constituencies to stay away and the threshold might not be met,” he said.
Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs minister Harry Kalaba told Parliament that the process to formulate foreign policy to allow Zambians in the diaspora to participate in the economic development had reached an advanced stage.
Mr Kalaba told Parliament in a ministerial statement that the committee charged with formulation of the policy was undertaking necessary consultations with all relevant stakeholders.
He said the policy document would be subjected to wide consultation to ensure ownership by various stakeholders who were key in the process.