MS Kilango-Malecela
PRESIDENT John Magufuli has, by nominating former Shinyanga Regional Commissioner, Ms Anne Kilango- Malecela as MP ahead of the parliament session starting next week, swiftly moved to forestall debate on what appeared to be a ‘constitutional crisis’.
For the past few days, the social media
has been awash with hot debate that President Magufuli could have gone
against the Supreme Law after he nominated two new MPs -- Law Professor
Palamagamba Kabudi and Abdallah Bulembo. Their appointment has so far
brought to eight out of 10, which is the total number of presidential
nominees allowed under the constitution.
Out of the eight, six are men. Two more
are required. Those who publicly argued against the appointment said
considering the required ratio between male and female nominees, Article
66 (1) (e), says at least five members amongst the nominees should be
women.
But, according to the analysts, that
debate has now become baseless following the nomination of Ms
Kilango-Malecela, which came as a replacement a few hours after one of
the male nominees, Dr Abdallah Possi, a Deputy Minister in the Prime
Minister’s Office, resigned as an MP, a day after he had been appointed
ambassador. His appointment as ambassador and nomination of Ms Malecela
as lawmaker brings to an end the vividly blown up constitutional
dilemma.
Academicians who spoke to the ‘Daily
News’ yesterday noted that President Magufuli has made a good ‘U-turn’
ahead of the Parliament sitting next week, which would probably have
attracted discussions on whether the previous nominations did not
consider gender balance.
Professor Kitila Mkumbo of the School of
Education of the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) said the president
has reacted too fast to prevent a constitutional crisis, noting that the
discussion could feature in the forthcoming Bunge session. However,
Professor Mkumbo said the president had acted on his constitutional
powers to nominate and revoke the appointment.
Professor Gaudence Mpangala of the Ruaha
Catholic University (RUCU) commented that now there is a huge
possibility for President Magufuli to meet the required menwomen ratio
required under the constitution.
“I guess that the president heard the
concerns from stakeholders over unconstitutional nominations; hence his
swift decision to avert any possible constitutional conflict,” he
observed. Recently, following the appointments of Professor Kabudi and
Mr Bulembo, some legal practitioners said the president was in the right
direction as others faulted him for going against the provisions of
Article 66 (1) (g) of the Union’s Constitution.
Seasoned Advocate Mpale Mpoki pointed
out that the question whether the president has exceeded his powers
depended on interpretation of the Article in question. He was of the
opinion that the president has not committed any offence as long as the
total number of 10 nominees has not so far been attained.
“He (president) may resort to Article 67
(2) (g) of the constitution to strike the gender balance contemplated
under Article 66 (1) (e). So, It is wrong at the moment to conclude that
there is a constitution breach for the recent appointments,” he pointed
out.
Article 67 (2) (g) reads, “A person
shall not be qualified to be elected or appointed (MP) if such person
holds a senior office in the service of the government, not being an
office of which the President may or is required to appoint a Member of
Parliament in accordance with this Constitution or a law enacted by
Parliament.”
Advocate Mpoki was, however, quick to
point out that the president could be wrong somewhere -- going by
purposive approach of interpretation of the constitution because the
purpose of Article 66 (1) (e) was to have a gender balance among the
nominees.
If there were six men already, then the
gender balance is not there. But there is a lacuna in this article, as
far as revocation of the appointee is concerned. This gape can be cured
later under Article 67 (2) (g) since the president still has other
nominees to make,” he said.
Advocate Hudson Ndusyepo was of a
different view “going by clear reading of the article in controversy’’.
He said that the words “at least” used under the article meant minimum.
Thus, he said, most of the nominees were
required to be women and not men as what has been done by the
president. He suggested that the president could resort to Article 67
(2) (g) and Article 71 (1) of the Constitution to already nominee MPs to
remedy the situation.
Otherwise, he said, if the position would remain would amount to the constitutional breach.
Advocate Jerome Msemwa almost gave
similar sentiments, but threw the ball to legal advisors to the
president – in that they had not properly interpreted the constitution,
in particular the article in question, which vests powers on the head of
the state to appoint lawmakers
No comments :
Post a Comment