appointing and dismissing most public figures, exercising the prerogative of mercy, dissolving Parliament, declaring a state of emergency and so on. • An Unworkable System of government Inorder to mislead the people into believing that it had answered their call for reduced executive powers, the Draft of the Constitutional Commission introduced a Prime Minister whose role was unclear and who could not work without hindrance from the President. For instance, the Prime Minister was said to be the head of government, yet his/her cabinet was chaired by the President. The system had every potential to lead to political instability and an ineffective government. • A weak Parliament The current Parliament cannot easily pass a vote of no confidence in an incompetent government of the day. On the contrary, the President has powers to dissolve Parliament at anytime. The Draft of the Constitutional Commission did not change this and continued with a situation where a law passed by Parliament could be overridden by the President. • A Window dressing Senate The Draft of the Constitutional Commission created a Senate, which had no powers at all. The Senate in the Draft was used to create the impression that the President ‘s powers were being checked by the Senate when in fact it was so weak that it could not effectively provide checks against the President. • A narrow Bill of Rights The Bill of Rights in the Draft of the Constitutional Commission was narrow in scope and did not protect some fundamental rights and freedoms. For instance, the freedom of the press, the right to education, the right of workers to strike, the right to health and full gender equality were not covered in the Bill of Rights. • Inadequate provisions for free and fair elections The Draft of the Constitutional Commission did not provide for a truly independent Electoral Commission. It only used the word “Independent” but the Commission provided therein was nothing of the sort. • No devolution of governmental powers to the people at appropriate levels The Draft of the Constitutional Commission did not provide an appropriate framework for devolution of governmental powers to provinces and other local structures. 5