By CHITALU MUMBA –
THE United National Independence Party (UNIP) in Southern Province has called on political parties to embrace the 50 per cent plus one majority vote.
Parliament recently passed the Constitution Bill that requires a 50 per cent plus one majority vote for the Republican President.
The provision also requires a presidential candidate to have a running mate who would eventually be a Republican vice president.
The Bill  proposes to election of a presidential candidate on a 50 +1 per cent majority vote, while the vice president would be elected as a running mate among others.
Speaking in an interview in Livingstone yesterday, UNIP Southern Province chairperson Robert Mukengami said political parties should embrace the new constitutional provisions and educate their members on the implications..
“It is good that Parliament has managed to give us a people driven Constitution and we need to educate people on its contents,” Mr Mukengami said.
He said there was need to be grateful to President Edgar Lungu, who was a jubilee president for giving the people a new Constitution.
“President Lungu is a jubilee President, who has managed to give the people what other presidents who have ruled this country before were reluctant to do,” he said.
Mr Mukengami said political parties had no choice but to accept that they would have a president and his running mate.
“As political parties in the country, we should start educating the people on the new Constitution because this is the document which the people are going to use when electing the new president and his running mate,” he said.
Mr Mukengami said UNIP was ready to field a presidential candidate and his running mate.
He said there was no need to begin condemning the new Constitution.