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{
    "id": 676168,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/676168/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 272,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "The idea to make the commissioners part time looks progressive, but it is not good enough. I do not understand why we need five commissioners. We need much less. It is not only reducing the number of the commissioners which is important. We also need to describe what they are supposed to do. The commissioners should deal with policy issues and oversight from time to time. These are part time duties as opposed to clear cases where the commissioners get involved in day to day operations of election management in this country. All these things need to be looked at. Let us not be shy. This attempted amendment might look small but the implications are huge. The implications might be grave for this country. Why is it that as a country, we have never had elections where winners can extend magnanimity and humility in spite of victory, as losers embrace winners and accept that there would be another chance to fight again? Over 10,000 people offered themselves to be elected for the various positions in this country in the last election. The truth of the matter is that thousands of people wanted to come to the National Assembly, but only 290 came. That is a reality. We must have a system where the 290 Members who come here will accept their victory with humility and magnanimity, and extend an olive branch to the losers. The losers will embrace them and accept to the extent that the way the elections were conducted, they lost fairly. That speaks to the credibility of the electoral process. We have had election management in this country, where the managers unfortunately seem to be more concerned with the outcome as opposed to the process that leads to the outcome. This is the problem in this country. Let us deal with the process. There can only be one winner and one president. There can only be one Member of Parliament in Rarieda at a time, but the electoral process has to be in a way that those who will fall by the wayside have to accept it. If we keep on window-dressing and dealing with the symptoms, the way this Bill attempts to do, we will be trapped forever in this vicious circle of electoral violence. The election results will be declared and the country will totally be on the bleak. Is that what we want for this country? I beg to differ."
}