Zambia 1996
As part of its 1991 election platform, the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) promised that if elected it would replace the 1991 constitution with one that would be above partisan considerations and would promote democracy and human rights. A year after the MMD came to power, the Minister of Legal Affairs created a seven-member task force to review the constitution. The government disbanded the task force and replaced it with a 24-member appointed Constitutional Review Commission in November 1993.
The Commission, known as the Mwanakatwe Commission (after its chairman), received a mandate to make recommendations on the substance of the constitution, to reference the constitutions of other countries and to propose a mode by which the constitution should be adopted (such as a referendum or by the National Assembly). Between March and September 1994, the Commission traveled extensively throughout Zambia collecting large volumes of views from the public through forty-six public sittings in all nine provinces of the country. In June 1995, the Commission submitted its recommendations. The recommendations included the introduction of a Constitutional Court, recommendations for expanding women’s rights, the creation of an independent Electoral Commission and of a broad-based Constituent Assembly to ratify proposed constitutional changes, and a clear separation of Church and State.
A few months later, the government published its reaction to the recommendations. The white paper rejected many of the recommendations made by the Commission and was met with opposition from a broad section of the Zambian population including religious groups, scholars, students, and trade union members. Non-governmental organizations and churches organized a “citizens’ conference” to raise public awareness and gather public resistance to the government’s proposed measures. In February 1996, the government compiled the pieces of the Commission’s report that it found acceptable and incorporated them into a Parliamentary bill to amend the constitution. The bill encountered severe opposition from the United National Independence Party (UNIP), the main opposition party, and other political parties who walked out of the debate in protest of a citizenship clause which stated that in order to be president a person must have been born in Zambia, have parents who were both born in Zambia and are Zambian citizens. During this time, the government received international pressure to remove the citizenship clause as well as to reconsider wording which declares Zambia a Christian state. A minor amount of violence occurred during this period as a fringe opposition group known as the Black Mambas set off a bomb outside the President’s residence.
Despite widespread public criticism, on May 21, 1996, the unicameral Parliament passed the bill by a vote of 119 to 0. Parliamentary law required a 2/3 majority for proposed constitutional amendments. The President signed the bill on May 28, 1996. The bill, enacted as the Constitution of Zambia (Amendment) Act No. 18 of 1996, essentially repealed every section of the 1991 constitution except Part III, which governs Protection of Fundamental Rights and Freedom of the Individual. In effect, the government created a new constitution through an Act of Parliament.