Unnecessary and costly bye-elections

“SOME civil society organisations have described the resignation and defection of Nchanga member of Parliament, Charles Chimumbwa, from the Patriotic Front (PF) to the ruling party as an unnecessary drain on public funds. Forum for Democratic Process (FODEP), Anti Voter Apathy (AVAP) and Oasis Forum condemned the resignation on Thursday.” From the Daily Mail 04-09-2007.
I do not wish to explore the issues leading to the honourable MP’s resignation from PF to join the MMD but it is a gross misuse of public resources to force an unnecessary and costly bye-election on the poor taxpayers. The blame lies squarely with the MMD and the President in particular for encouraging opposition MPs to defect to the ruling party. This practice started when Levy appointed a group of opposition MPs to Ministerial positions during his first term. The country simply does not have the resources to waste on these bye-elections. It would be interesting to find out from the Electoral Commission how much each one of these elections costs the govt. One obviously has to factor in the cost of the public resources (cash, vehicles, GRZ time) that will be used by the govt to make sure that the MMD wins the election. I therefore support the sentiments expressed by the civil society.

To discourage this practice, I would like to suggest that the next constitution should have a clause which prohibits seating MPs from re-contesting their seat if they force a bye-elction for the life time of that parliament (i.e. 5 yrs). I do not know whether such a move would be legally sound but we need to do some thing to discourage the MMD’s desire to increase their majority at the taxpayer’s expense.

The PANEL.