Zanu PF chief whip Pupurai Togarepi said ruling party
legislators met “to deal with housekeeping issues”.
“Of course, if there is a vote and we have a routine
meeting, we also discuss how to proceed and ensure everybody comes, and we see
where we stand then we see the numbers and encourage people to come,” Togarepi
said.
“We do not do a caucus because we have a crisis, we don’t
have a crisis in terms of our approach to issues in Parliament where you find
that in other political parties there is dissent or anything. We don’t have
that in Zanu PF and it is, therefore, just a routine caucus,” he said.
MDC-T spokesperson Witness Dube said party legislators were
ordered to oppose the Bill although their colleagues in the National Assembly
joined forces with Zanu PF to pass the Bill last month.
Dube, however, referred further questions to the party
chief whip in the National Assembly Paurina Mpariwa who was not picking up
calls.
If the Bill passes, it will among other provisions give
unfettered power to the President, including doing away with the running mate
clause and handpicking judges, as well as increase the tenure of the
proportional representation women’s quota to 2033, among several other
amendments.
The scrapping off of the clause on running mates is set to
come into effect in the 2023 elections to settle Zanu PF succession disputes
and give the President the prerogative to appoint his deputies.
Impeccable party sources last week said the MDC-T
leadership ordered opposition legislators to criticise the Bill publicly in
Parliament, but when it comes to voting, some of its members must assist Zanu
PF to garner the much-needed two-thirds majority in Senate.
The Constitutional Amendment No 2 Bill sailed through the
Lower House on a 191 majority against only 22 MPs from the MDC Alliance and
four from Mwonzora’s faction who opposed it. Newsday
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