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This article participates on the following special index pages:
New Constitution-making process - Index of articles
Study:
Zimbabweans opposed to way of drafting new constitution
Irwin Chifera, VOA News, Voice of America
December 28, 2012
View this article
on the VOA website
Research findings
by an Indian University and Democratic Party President Wurayayi
Zembe reportedly show that most Zimbabweans do not believe that
the current constitution
making process is democratic and that they do not want government,
parliament or political parties to lead the drafting of the charter.
The research by Christ
University and Mr. Zembe, titled "Developing a Democratic
Constitutional Framework Through a People-Driven Constitution-Making
Process For Zimbabwe," also indicates that Zimbabweans do
not want the constitution revision process to be funded by foreign
donors.
The research was conducted
between December 2011 and December 2012 and sampled 1,120 people
and 67 institutions from all provinces in the country.
Asked who should
lead the constitution-making process, 85% of respondents said the
constitution should come from the people and not political parties,
government or Parliament.
More precisely, 17% of
respondents said an independent and non-partisan body should lead,
while 15% said the draft must be created by a non-partisan civil
society organization.
On the question of who
should pay for the constitutional development process, 74% of respondents
said Zimbabwe must fund its own constitution. So far donors have
provided most of the 50 million dollars that have been used in the
constitution making process.
It should be
noted that study co-author Zembe is also a former member of the
National Constitutional
Assembly, a body long opposed to a party-driven constitution
making process.
Nonetheless, Pedzisayi
Runhanya, director of the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute, says the
research findings are not surprising.
Mr. Ruhanya also agrees
that the new constitution must be funded internally, though says
he does not object to donor funding generally.
Mr. Zembe says the research,
which was informed by the COPAC process, highlights the importance
of a democratic, people driven constitution-making process.
The three parties
in the unity government, who are in charge of the current drafting
process through COPAC, have argued the process is people-driven
because their parties represent the people in Parliament.
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