What’s the problem with just releasing details of the same delimitation?

By Daily Revelation Editor

We are wondering what is in this delimitation of constituencies which the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) and those in government have kept closer to their chests, far away from Zambians, as if they are hiding ilomba.

We have a nation right now that is deeply discussing the contents of the Bill 7 which is already before Parliament, and now the Technical Committee Report has presented its report.

The Technical Committee appointed by President Hakainde Hichilema to look into the Constitutional amendments has actually proposed that constituency held seats must be increased from 156 to 226. And when appearing before a parliamentary committee to address the same report, Technical Committee vice-chairperson Landilani Banda said that delimitation was one of the topics that received a lot of submissions. But the same committee has also recommend that the same must be handled transparently, which goes counter to everything Hichilema and his officials in government have been doing.

However, during his recent lamentations at State House where he claimed that he was being opposed on his narrow interests on the constitution because of the region he hailed from, Hichilema gave a clear hint of what might be contained in the same delimitation, when he, applying the same regional perspective on matters, claimed that previous delimitations favoured certain regions. Whether that is true or not, we leave it for people to judge. But the idea is that since Hichilema has convinced himself in his mind that it happened before, he would want to use the same as a pretext to ‘equalise’. Equalising maybe among the motivations, but there is even something more sinister actually, which is to benefit the President and the ruling UPND in the elections.

Remember, Hichilema has not hidden the fact that he has been informed that he will likely to win but most of his members of parliament would likely lose. Therefore, the idea is to make up for those loses by creating more constituencies in constituencies where the UPND is strong. 

Zambians are watching, because there are several factors delimitation takes into account, including the population of a given area.

It is always advisable that when one is a national leader, their viewpoint must reflect nationality in everything that they do. If they insist on going along the path they are so determined to move along, there is a saying that power is very temporally. Tomorrow another person might take over who will also want to ‘equalise’ and benefit themselves politically by increasing numbers in their constituencies. In so it is Zambia that stands to lose out as people will be more focussed on region as opposed to building a cohesive and united nation.