Hichilema’s position of 7-year-term

By Daily Revelation Editor

President Hakainde Hichilema has indicated that he has no intention whatsoever to embark on a secret and discreet constitutional review process specifically on extending the presidential term limit from five to seven years.

State House chief communication specialist Clayson Hamasaka said that Hichilema swore to uphold and defend the Republican constitution, and that he remained resolute to defend the constitution and has no interest in manipulating it for his personal benefit.

We were among those who urged Hichilema to come out immediately and forcefully state his position emphatically on the push we saw some relevance seeking civil society organisations trying to push through in order to sound more relevant, when all they were peddling was nothing but total nonsense. That Hichilema has come out quickly to state his position is highly commendable, before this vile position actually got traction in some simple minds out there.

We hope going forward even those in the ruling UPND will adopt this posture, not only in word but action, in terms of firmly advancing the position that they would not allow anyone advocating for a change in term limits that would be beneficial to themselves and especially the President. We urge especially UPND deputy secretary general Gertrude Imenda not to be double-minded on the matter where she talks about her party respecting the constitutional term limit of five-years while at the same time saying that they will go with the majority views that will prevail on the seven-year term limit debate. In short, Imenda was saying that if those pushing for the term limit to be increased to seven years, the UPND would go with that, no matter how nonsensical that view is. And we should not forget that not every popular view is birthed from popular positions, given the very uneven resource outlay the ruling party is able to unleash if they really want to claim that something is popular.

And we hope with Hichilema’s position, the hot heads who sought relevance for trying to foist through this vile idea, will get back into their miserable shells where they belong. However, we are very sure that this is not the last time we are hearing from them. We are sure that they have gone to strategise in order to come back with another unpopular proposal they think would benefit especially the ruling class.

But Hichilema has been accused by the opposition of trying to mutilate the constitution by removing the 50% + 1 majoritarian threshold, and running-mate clause which are both popular with Zambians, on assertions that he is panicking and fearing defeat. We feel a comprehensive statement from the President will be highly welcome, not only on the 7-year-term but also on all the contentious issues that are being raised, to alley any fears that he could attempt to go along that path. It is very important for his own legacy that rather than doing away with such popular clauses, Hichilema must instead be seen to be pushing for more popular positions seeking to advance public good.