(HARARE)President Robert Mugabe signed a doctored version of Constitutional Amendment Number 19, a move that might jeopardize the constitutional referendum expected next year, Zimbabwe’s lawyers have charged.

According to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, the version approved by parliament was whittled down from 36 pages to only 18 without explanation.

“Half the agreed Bill was removed by the Attorney-General’s Office. Only half was signed by President Mugabe and gazetted as Constitutional Amendment No. 19,” said the lawyers group in a commentary obtained on Friday (Aug 21).

“It is not known if President Mugabe knew of the cuts and changes to parliament’s Bill before he signed.”

ZLHR said the most important changes related to the removal of two clauses linked to the current constitution-writing process.

“In the absence of these Transitional Provisions and Schedules being enacted into law, control of any future referendums remains legally vested with the President, who can decide whether or not any referendum can be held, when and what question to put to the people, in terms of the Referendum Act enacted in 2000, which remains unchanged,” the commentary said.

Human rights lawyer Sheila Jarvis said, “An Act must be enacted by both Parliament and the President in the same terms. It is impossible legally to have an Act in two different versions – one version approved by Parliament and another by the President. A President certainly can never make into law only half of any Bill that the MPs have passed. It must be all or nothing. So in this case, until all of HB2 of 2008 gets a Presidential signature, it will remain as nothing.”

Added Jarvis,”The AG’s office allegedly tried to justify its cuts by claiming the missing clauses were meaningless and it wanted to save paper, but in my opinion its main motive must have been to keep full control over the 2010 referendum, and of the new draft constitution to be offered to the people then, in the President’s Office.” (ZimEye, Zimbabwe)

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