Dear Editor,
It was indeed a shame that the laws of arithmetic had to be verified for us by the CCJ. Now that they have ruled, all we have to do is follow the rules laid down in the Constitution.
Article 106(6) tells us what is to happen. It says that the Cabinet including the President shall resign if the Government is defeated by a majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence.
106(7) tells us when it is to happen: within 3 months or as determined by a two-thirds majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly, just before a new Government is sworn in after elections.
It would be nice to reduce bloat in the electoral list, but this is not an indispensable condition for holding elections, because the electoral system was designed to function with such lists. Continuous registration and genuine work by GECOM would suffice. Calls for house to house registration as a prerequisite for holding elections are as egregious an error as 34 being the minimum majority in 65.
Since the appointment of the current GECOM chairman breached the constitution, he ought to resign and the President do what the Constitution says: pick a chairman from the first six names submitted by the Leader of the Opposition. (There is nothing about submission of other sixes in the Constitution, but the CCJ has allowed space for agreement.) If the chairman does not resign, the President must tell him to go, since the President says he accepts the CCJ ruling.
Whoever starts to protest after this must then be asked what they are protesting about.
Yours faithfully,
Alfred Bhulai
