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{
    "id": 928051,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/928051/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 208,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Saku, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ali Rasso",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13473,
        "legal_name": "Dido Ali Raso",
        "slug": "dido-ali-raso"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I support the Bill on the basis that we must start somewhere in making laws for this country. Also, we must improve on the existing laws. My clear understanding of the Bill before the House on the IEBC is that it is about improving on the existing law. I take cognisance of the issues that have been raised by Hon. Junet. He raised fundamental issues. If we say that the IEBC should be apolitical and should not take sides during an electoral contestation and we go further to argue that it must have political representation, then, of course, we are shooting ourselves on the foot on the grounds that IEBC becomes a political instrument for the parties of the time or of the day. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, IEBC is an important constitutional commission. It is through the functions of the IEBC that we are gathered in this august Assembly. It is because of the work it has done. Article 88(4) of the Constitution clearly outlays the responsibilities of the IEBC. In my reading of the Constitution, the IEBC is there because of Article 250(1). The Constitution says that each commission shall consist of, at least, three, but not more than nine members. Had this Article not been put in our Constitution, the IEBC should not be in existence. We should be asking ourselves how we conduct by-elections and other elections that are going to come about. Issues have been raised. I want to add my voice on the same, particularly in terms of the panel of those we think we can give responsibility to nominate commissioners or sit in the nominating panel. As it were, this is just the Second Reading of this Bill. If we must negotiate or think through what has been suggested by the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs, then we should give our proposals during the Committee of the whole House. Some of the fundamental issues that this Bill has attempted to cure are about timeliness. Today, four commissioners are missing. It is almost going to a year and no attempt is being made to replace them because there is no law in place that binds anybody, including this august House, on how they should be replaced. The President will do the final nomination before approval by this House, but the law does not give clear guideline on the point when the President will do that. The nominating panel is not in place. It has to be constituted. At what time will it be constituted? I thank the Committee for coming up with that. The object of this Bill is to give legal backing to the matter of nomination of the selection panel. I just want to say one final thing which I believe the Committee can have a good listen to and think over. As opposed to having an IEBC of seven members being nominated at the same time, we can have a commission of three and four that overlap each other. In that case, if anything happens when one commission’s time The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}