Thursday, March 01, 2012

Provinces may object, says top lawyer

By LESLIE OMARO

A SENIOR lawyer has warned the government that the provinces could declare independence if the general election is deferred, The National reports.
 Lawyer Alois Jerewai said one of the biggest consequences of any deferment was that provinces would lose faith in the Constitution and declare independence themselves.
“Inherently, the Constitution will be useless and the highest ramifications will be that each province will declare independence,” he said.
“Whatever the government does, it must not delay the election.
“If the current parliamentarians cannot power the state machinery properly, then we go to the general election to get rid of them.”
He said any province could do whatever it wished by declaring the Constitution void and then proceed to adopt its own Constitution.
“In other words, the nation will disintegrate.
“Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen and the government are all talking about the common roll not being ready.
"What were they doing in the past five years?
“This will affect the Constitution itself.
 “The general election must be conducted on schedule in accordance with provisions under sub-section 104.
“Whether the common roll is updated based on previous common rolls, the general election must go ahead.”
He said in the event a delay was inevitable, the government would continue in office illegally and without the mandate of people

No comments:

Post a Comment