By 
Constitutional lawyer, John Sangwa, has called on President Hakainde Hichilema to permanently withdraw without compromise, the Constitution Amendment Bill No. 7.
President Hichilema had directed Justice Minister, Princess Kasune, to defer Bill 7 of 2025 to allow for wider consultations, barely a day after it was in Parliament for second reading, amid growing pressure from stakeholders to halt the process.
Sangwa said this during the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) Public Forum on the Constitutional Reform Process on Friday, held at Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka.
He warned against applying double standards stating that the same way Bill 10 was rejected under President Lungu for undermining constitutionalism, Bill 7 should be rejected.
”The deferral does not answer the constitutional violations already committed by advancing the bill and does not resolve the breach of public trust that its process represents,” Sangwa said.
He argued that Bill 7 proposes sweeping changes that undermine democratic safeguards, silence voters and centralize power.
Sangwa stated that the Bill sought among other goals to strip voters of power by allowing political parties and not citizens to fill Parliamentary vacancies.
“This is a direct attack on electoral sovereignty and voter choice for the Zambian electorate,” he said
During the forum, LAZ President, Lungusani Zulu, commended President Hichilema for taking a bold step to defer the Bill, describing it as a positive development.
Lungu said the move presented citizens a great opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions on any reforms to the supreme law of the country, but emphasized that the consultations should be based on genuine, broad-based stakeholder consensus.
Similary, the Democratic Union president, Ackim Njobvu, echoed LAZ’s position on the Constitution Amendment process.
“This will now give the government enough time to explain on a number of unclear issues such as funding for the process and address the concerns from various stakeholders,” Njobvu said.
He reiterated that stakeholders had only been advocating for a constitution initiated by ordinary citizens, rather than politicians, to ensure it truly reflected the people’s needs and interests.
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