JK hints on Constituent Assembly date

President Jakaya Kikwete gestures as he delivers a speech after the unveiling of the the second draft constitution in Dar es Salaam yesterday. PHOTO | EMMANUEL HERMAN 

By The Citizen Reporter

In Summary

This prompted President Kikwete to meet with representatives of political parties through the Tanzania Centre for Democracy (TCD).

Dar es Salaam. The Constituent Assembly, which will debate the second draft constitution, will begin its work not later than February 11, next year, President Jakaya Kikwete said yesterday.

He was speaking at Karimjee grounds after receiving the draft from Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) chairman Joseph Warioba.

“Last month we welcomed various groups to propose the names of people whom they think should represent them in the Constituent Assembly. The deadline is January 3, and I would like to urge groups that have not done so to forward the names so as to be sure that they exploit this opportunity,” he said.

Each interest group is supposed to propose between four and nine names to the President, who will pick 201 members for the Constituent Assembly.

President Kikwete said that it might take him more than two weeks to nominate and publish the names along with the date the Constituent Assembly would begin its work. “It took me two weeks to nominate 30 members of the Constitution Review Commission. With these 201 members, I am sure that it will take me more than two weeks. But all in all, the Constituent Assembly will begin not later than February 11, next year,” he said. The assembly will also include all members of the Union Parliament and Zanzibar’s House of Representatives. In total, the Constituent Assembly will have more than 600 members.

President Kikwete urged those who would have the opportunity to sit in the assembly to put national interests first when debating the draft.

The composition of the Constituent Assembly was decided last month when Parliament reviewed the Constitutional Review Act.

The decision was reached after heated debate in the House. The opposition staged a boycott when the draft was tabled in the previous sitting. Even after President Kikwete signed the Bill into law, opposition politicians threatened to stage a nationwide campaign to oppose the law, demanding that the number of Constitution Assembly members be increased. Opposition parties wanted the number increased to give as many people as possible an opportunity to participate in rewriting the new supreme law.

This prompted President Kikwete to meet with representatives of political parties through the Tanzania Centre for Democracy (TCD).

It was then agreed that the newly signed law be amended so as to accommodate the opposition’s concerns. The number of Constituent Assembly members from outside Parliament and the House of Representatives members was eventually increased from 166 to 201. According to the law governing the writing of the new constitution, the Constituent Assembly will have an initial 72 days to go through the second draft and come out with the third and final draft.