Although Copac Co-chairpersons Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana (Zanu- PF), Douglas Mwonzora (MDC-T) and Edward Mkhosi (MDC) expressed confidence that the convention was running smoothly earlier on, Mangwana said his party would nevertheless table its queries.
He said he expected Zanu (PF) representatives to raise issues that the party wants incorporated in the draft constitution.
“I expect my party representatives to make the amendments. However, I must high¬light that there is no possibility of a stalemate.
“All we are going to have are differ¬ent views being brought forward,” he said, adding that Copac would seek to reconcile the divergent views. “If we fail to reconcile them, we will take them to the principals for politi¬cal direction,” he said.
Mwonzora concurred with Mangwana and revealed that the con¬ference would first identify areas of con¬sensus before debating the con¬tentious issues.
He ruled out any stalemate, saying all viewpoints would be accepted in the 18 thematic groups that will be set up.
“If the groups have a stalemate, they will simply tell us. They do not need to go further than identifying and reporting the stalemate.
“Where there is no agreement, we will not change the document as Copac; we will leave the process for other processes that come later, such as Parliament and the referendum,” said Mwonzora.
Zanu (PF) has been gunning to have several amendments it made to the draft constitution at party level debated at the conference that will end tomorrow.
It had also wanted the National Statistical Report indicating quantitatively how people gave their views incorporated in conference deliberations, arguing that the draft drifted from what the people had said.
However, that demand was shot down and COPAC has since published the report online.
Post published in: Business