Hichilema and the Constitution

By Daily Revelation Editor

The Civil Society Organisations have said attempts to amend the Constitution a few months before the general elections appear to be politically motivated.

This follows President Hakainde Hichilema’s remarks last week, while officiating at the Women’s Day celebrations in Kasama, that the nation had agreed to amend the Constitution before the 2026 general elections in order to provide proportional representation and appointments of more women in decision making positions.

Re-affirming that position, State House Chief Communication Specialist Clayson Hamasaka yesterday announced, while featuring on Hot FM, that the draft Constitution was already in place and would be made public by next week at the latest.

However, as expected, several stakeholders have come out in opposition to the plans by Hichilema and his administration to rush through a document as important as a Constitution, barely 18 months before the August 2026 general elections. Many are wondering what the main motivation behind such schemes are. Why now, in this penultimate year before Hichilema and his administration finish their term, and are due to seek another mandate from the Zambian people in 2026?

Hichilema has had four years to embark on proper constitutionalism, to ensure the enactment of a constitution that would stand the test as he promised during his opposition days, when he viciously opposed other piecemeal amendments such as the Bill 10 for instance. Why is he engaging in the same schemes he opposed? Has power suddenly become too sweet that he’s now ready to manipulate the law of the land as some stakeholders are asserting? Definitely, nothing can be expected to be perfect when handled in such a hurried manner, especially a document as important and as sacred as the Constitution of the land. It will be interesting to see the same document they say will be made available to the public in just a matter of weeks, including the proposals it will contain.

However, many may be inclined to conclude that this will be another self-serving document of an incumbent seeking to entrench himself and his officials in power. If there was genuineness in this process, it should have first sought to establish broad consensus in the country, by engaging all the important stakeholders openly.

However, there is a reason why those in government have not bothered to seek broad consensus. Usually things that are mainly tailored towards self-serving will not attempt to do so. Let’s wait and see what will be contained in the same documents. And there could be an explanation on why this process did not start early enough, chief among them the numbers and allegiances in Parliament. It goes without saying that the ruling UPND has taken over several seats from the opposition, while buying the allegiance of several opposition members of parliament, or is it opposition members buying their allegiance to the ruling party? Any of the two will explain the confidence in ruling party ranks to want to move on with the amendments now.

And without vigilance from Zambians, the ruling party may just find favourable ground in Parliament to pass their planned amendments, even those that may be least popular to Zambians. Surely, Zambians cannot expect an opposition member of parliament who has already endorsed Hichilema for 2026, and has already declared allegiance to the ruling party, to vote against any potential amendment bill that may be introduced by the same ruling party.