By: Binta Jaiteh
The People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) National Assembly Member for Wuli East has said the decamping of former United Democratic Party (UDP) legislators to the National People’s Party and the weight that theNational Reconciliation Party (NRP) and Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC)threw behind the party were some of the factors that led to the failure of the draft new constitution to be passed at the National Assembly.
President Adama Barrow’s adviser on political matters SaihouMballow was the latest ruling party heavyweight to apportion blame to the 5th Legislature for the draft’s failure to see the light of day.
Speaking in an interview with The Voice, Wuli East NAM Touray argued that claims by some people that the 5th legislature thwarted the birth of a new constitution will be subjective.
“That will be a subjective statement. The person didn’t want to analyze to tell you how the bill had been rejected but his objective is to blame everybody, who was in the former legislature,” Touray pointed out.
According to him, President Adama Barrow’s supporters were responsible for the rejection of the draft new constitution.
“The fact is those who supported the President are the ones that actually rejected the draft constitution; the UDP members that split from the UDP when there was a split between Barrow and Darboe. Immediately after that occurred (split), they took the independent seat. It was those independents who were supporting the Barrow camp that actually voted against the draft,” he explained.
On the role of NRP and APRC in the constitutional debacle, the Wuli East NAM said: “The second group that opposed the draft constitution in the second reading are those members from the NRP, who said, they are aligning with the NPP camp. The third group is the APRC, who said, they are not interested in a new constitution because they wanted the old Constitution.”
Legislator Touray pointed out that the threshold required for the passage of the draft was another challenge. He continued:“Thechallenge there was the National Assembly required three-quarters of all the members in the Assembly not just members that were sitting but the total membership that needed to pass the second stage so that we will have the opportunity to consider the bill through a committee which would also consult other committees and National Assembly members, who have reservations on the bill so that after scrutinizing, a consensus could have been built, which will enable the assembly to attain the 75% that is required for the bill to go to the consideration stage, the third reading so that it can go to the referendum.”
He explained that the term limit of the President was another sticking point.
“The NRP members…their main point or argument was the term limit that the draft constitution proposed that the sitting President’s first term should be counted as part of the two terms that should be there. The two terms that is allocated in the constitution. So the President and the President’s camp are opposed to that and their argument is that the President has already attained his first term before the draft constitution supposedly comes into bill.
“So since that is the case, if you count that you are depriving the President of his right. His acquired right and you are also making it retroactive. So in their opinion, we cannot make a law and make it retroactive because if we do that that’s going to deprive the President of his term of office…it should not be counted as his first term. The constitution should come into being and everybody starts from there. If the President wins, that would be his first term. If that is not there, they will not take chance to vote for the draft in the second reading because doing so may not augur well with them…doing so may be risky to them. And this is why they rejected the draft right there.”
According to NAM Touray, it would be fair to analyze the whole situation if one is analyzing the reason why the draft was rejected so that people will know that it’s not only rejected by the Assembly but how it was rejected by lawmakers.