The Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) has written to Cabinet, through the Minister of Justice, to propose that any electoral and political party reforms must be done subsequent to removal of ambiguities and thorough amendments to the Constitution of Zambia.

YALI President, Andrew Ntewewe, who requested Cabinet and government to consider re-opening public commenting on amendments to the Constitution, said tabling electoral reforms and the political party Bill in Parliament before effecting amendments to the Constitution would trigger a process where Government and Parliament would unnecessarily be repeating itself in its law-making tasks.

Ntewewe said Government could afford to temporarily hold the tabling of the Political Party Bill until amendments are done to Article 60 of the Constitution which could have a significant bearing on the Bill.

“People will recall that YALI had gone to court in 2016 over the some matters concerning implementation of Article 60 and the Court’s judgment raised a number of key issues that cannot be overlooked in the operationalisation of Article 60,” said Ntewewe.

“The effectiveness of any amendments to the country’s electoral law can only be guaranteed if amendments to the Constitution of Zambia take precedence over amendments or enactment of new Acts of Parliament that operationalise the Constitution.”