Opinion: What Is The Fuss About Referendum?

LAZWhy does there always have to be debate about straightforward issues in Zambia? Everybody had long made noise about the referendum but when the state budged to those cries about giving the referendum to the people there emerged another band of voices adding another twist to the tale. Debate has now shifted to the timing of the referendum.

Undoubtedly debate is a healthy occurrence but there has to be some relevance to it. For a long time since Justice Minister Ngosa Simbyakula announced that the country will have a referendum alongside the general elections there has been deafening silence. Anybody who followed this debate will remember that Simbyakula gave reasons for pushing the referendum to a later date tying it to costs and the time needed to sensitive the public. With that the roadmap was sealed with little dissent. Once the process had commenced there was an announcement that the Electoral Commission of Zambia had been constituted as a referendum commission.

Again there was no debate there with only the issue of funding the process having occasionally popped up but money was duly allocated. Now with the process marching there are heightening calls to have the process postponed. Where were all these Non Governmental Organizations when the process had been quietly moving? Is it not part of their duty to sensitize the public about the referendum? Do they not get funding from donors to be relevant on such matters?

Were they not the ones that raised enough noise when the contentious issues in the constitution were deferred until the elections were held to cut costs? Why not channel their energy toward sensitising the public especially that the process is not only exclusive to registered voters? Anybody aged 18 years and above with a National Registration Card will be eligible to vote in the referendum. With the signs for the “Yes” and “No” votes released we expect the public to be made aware of the implications of this process.

So now that the process has been set and there being no chance of reversing the process let everybody play their role in ensuring that the process is a success. Let the people be made aware of the implications of repealing Article 79 where social and cultural rights will be embedded. What animal is the Bill of Rights? So now rather than chattering about the mix up between the elections and the referendum there is need to help add clarity by sensitizing the public.

Or is there merit in the suspicion raised by the government that the chattering NGOs fear once the process ends their prized donor cash cow will leave them dry?

For now it game on!

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