PF Lacks The Numbers To Pass Bill 10

The UPND Member of Parliament for Kalumbila, Teddy Kasonso, says the Patriotic Front does not have the numbers needed to pass Constitution Bill 10, even if two UPND members abstain from voting. 

Speaking at a meeting of the UPND’s Provincial Executive Committee, Mr Kasonso rejected the rumours suggesting that he had been bought off by President Lungu after he refused to participate in his party’s walkout from parliament in March. 

The opposition MP asserted that he would only work with President Lungu on the basis of principle and could not be bought by him.

“The walk out by my fellow UPND MPs was not done at the point of voting for people to accuse me of working with PF”, he added. 

Kasonso’s statement follows a mass walkout from parliament staged by UPND MPs at the critical stage of voting for Bill 10, leaving the government five votes short of the majority needed to pass the amendment. 

Kasonso, along with fellow UPND members Prof Lungwangwa and Mulowa Mukumbuta, remained in their seats during the walkout.

The government’s attempts to pass Bill 10 have garnered much controversy, with critics arguing that it significantly expands the powers of the president by giving parliament no say in debt contraction. The Bill would also undermine the independence of parliament and the judiciary by making the number of MPs and judges determinable by the executive, in this case President Lungu’s PF government. 

However, the government claims the Bill is designed to modernise Zambia’s constitution and protect vulnerable groups such as women and those who are disabled. 

Parliament after the UPND’s walkout