Chief Government Spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa says the government has received positive feedback from the public since the announcement of the proposed constitutional amendments by Minister of Justice, Princess Kasune, yesterday.

Mr Mweetwa states that the announcement of the proposed constitutional amendments has put to rest the propaganda which was being peddled that President Hakainde Hichilema wanted to increase the tenure of office to seven years.

“I would like to place here and now the government’s gratitude that ever since the Minister of Justice announced these proposed amendments to the Constitution most citizens have received these proposals well,” He said.

Mr Mweetwa who is also Minister of Information and Media disclosed during the media briefing that the government has no draft bill in place for amendment of the constitution as suggested by some sections of society.

The Minister explained that the proposed constitutional clauses for amendment presented to parliament yesterday by the Minister of Justice are not cast into stone but rather to give an opportunity for citizens and stakeholders to make comments as the government embarks on the journey of soliciting minimum consensus on possible constitutional amendments.

He explained that some of the clauses have been posing a challenge to the operations of government hence the need to amend the targeted clauses.

“Let me reiterate here that there is no draft bill for the amendment of the Zambian Constitution.”

Mr Mweetwa said it was necessary that the selected proposed clauses for amendments are addressed and pointed out that some clauses in the constitution have been causing administrative challenges in service delivery.

“It is necessary and expedient that they be addressed now because they are providing administrative challenges to the operations of government in a quest to provide the services for which this government was elected to save the people of Zambia,” He said.

Meanwhile, Mr Mweetwa says the number of seats that will be proposed to be added to the current 156 elective seats will be decided by the Electoral Commission for Zambia (ECZ ).

He emphasized during the media briefing, that it is the mandate of the ECZ to facilitate the periodic assessments of constituency delimitation and wards.

“This is one issue which I think is fairly straightforward, but that the number of seats that may be proposed to be added to the current 156 elective seats will be a function of the Electoral Commission for Zambia.”

Mr Mweetwa said the proposed delimitation is in inline with the constitutional requirement that ECZ is mandated by law.