By Bryson Jumbe
There has been a furore over the voting of the electoral reforms bill. The 50+1electoral system to be precise.
MPs, especially those who either voted 'No' or abstained the voting for various reasons, continue to face criticism.
A certain paper even suggested that the MPs 'sold out' to Government.
The MPs are being accused of satisfying their personal interests for voting against the bill without consulting their constituencies.
In defence, some say that there wasn't enough time to do so.
Now let's look at some of the 'expected' roles of both the government and the opposition in parliament.
These are based on expert opinion of former Speaker of Parliament, Dr Mpasu. He shared his view on the matter to Capital FM's Sunday Roundtable programme (17 December).
Government brings in bills to parliament.
Government side is expected to support bills it brings to parliament.
The opposition's role is to critique the bills. It is expected to be critical of whatever government brings in.
What happened with the 50+1 bill was the opposite.
Government side was critical of the bill and voted against its own bill.
The opposition assumed the 'expected role' of government by supporting the bill, and voted in favour of the bill.
The former speaker said: it was totally unheard-of for government to reject its own bills.
The 50+1 electoral system requires a presidential candidate to get more than 50 percent of the votes in order to become President.
A similar system is used in Liberia where a rerun has been held after the initial election produced no outright winner.
