Human rights activists have cautioned members of Parliament (MPs) against repealing the Political Parties Act to suit their political interests.

Reacting to a statement by Minister of Justice Titus Mvalo, some MPs on Tuesday called for the amendment of the Act to remove a clause that bars aspiring candidates from giving handouts during campaign to woo people to vote for them.

Human Rights Defenders Coalition leader Gift Trapence described the call as worrisome and warned the legislators against coming up with laws to serve their political ambitions.

He also said political parties seem not willing to abide by the law, passed in Parliament in 2018, to declare their sources of funding.

MPs are against barring handouts during campaign

Said Trapence: “This piece of law was passed about three years ago. Although it has not been put to the test yet, they want to bring us back to square one. That is suicidal.

“There were good reasons we came up with this law. We wanted to bring sanity during the campaign period and to avoid vote buying. We cannot be going back and forth.”

The human rights activist said the Political Parties Act is a good law and it should not be tampered with.

“We should not allow ourselves to make laws to suit our interests at a particular time; MPs should learn to make laws they can live with in every situation.”

Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiative (Cdedi) executive director Sylvester Namiwa agreed with Trapence that the Act is a good law that must be followed.

He said : “The MPs made their bed and they must lie on it. It is disheartening that they have the audacity to start making proposals to have the law amended or repealed.”

Namiwa said the law strengthens democracy by ensuring that people vote for candidates and political parties that can develop the country.

The Act, under Section 31, demands political parties should, at least, once in a year unveil financial records to their members.

But Mvalo expressed surprise in an interview that the MPs were now turning against the law they passed in 2018 when he was not there.

Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee chairperson Peter Dimba said in an interview yesterday it was difficult for his committee to comment on a debate that ensued in the plenary on the applicability of the Act on handouts.

“The plenary’s resolution takes pre-eminence over any committee’s views or stand. Suffice it to say that it must be understood that the Act gives exceptions as to what constitutes handout because of the unique context of our politics. As to whether a law that was enacted as recently as three years ago can be amended, it should be noted that laws are not cast in stone and that even a day old law can be amended or repealed,” he said.

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