Attorney General Frederick Werema
Constitutional Review
Commission (CRC) chairman Joseph Warioba has warned the Constituent
Assembly against overturning key proposals contained in the second draft
constitution.
Mr Warioba sounded the warning a day after
Attorney General Frederick Werema told CA members that they were free to
change anything in the draft except the national issue outlined in the
Constitution Review Act.
Comments by the two leaders came amid a debate on
whether CA members have the mandate to overturn proposals by the CRC,
notably on the Union structure. While the draft constitution proposes
three governments, the ruling CCM, which commands a majority in the CA,
advocates the current system of two governments. Mr Warioba told The
Citizen on Saturday by telephone yesterday that CA members should
understand that it is not their task to write the constitution.
“Their work will result in the third draft
constitution, which will be subjected to referendum to be undertaken by
the same people who gave views that formed the basis of what the CRC
proposed,” said Mr Warioba, who clarified earlier this month that CA
members were only allowed to improve what the CRC had proposed, not
overturn it.
But reacting to queries from CA members during a
workshop on Thursday, Mr Werema noted that with the exception of issues
mentioned in Section 9(2) of the Draft, members were at liberty to make
new recommendations.
National issues outlined in Section 9(2) of the
draft include the Union, the government, Parliament and Judiciary,
republic governance system and the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar.
Others are national unity, peace and tranquillity,
periodic democratic elections, human rights, equality before the law
and a secular republic.
“The work of this assembly is not limited to
adopting the draft constitution. If that was the case, then there would
have been no need to have this assembly,” Werema said.
But Mr Warioba said yesterday that in doing their work, CA members should make sure that they follow the law to the letter.
He said in doing so, CA members should desist from
“owning” the proposed constitution as it is only Tanzanians who were
going to make the final decision on the proposed Supreme Law.
Mr Warioba said what was in the draft constitution was the collective opinions of Tanzanians, which should be respected.
“On this, I am the final spokesperson. During this
process we are all advisors. Since the beginning, it is wananchi who
gave their opinion which formed the basis of the first draft. We later
returned to the same to wananchi who improved it. They made
amendments... Although it is being debated in the Assembly, the draft is
still the property of Tanzanians.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment