PARLIAMENT - The Senate will  today begin the process of adopting the National Constitution, a process that will put an end to months of debate on what articles to scrap and which ones to be added to the 7 year old set of laws.

The development follows a session that saw the Constitution sent back to the Lower Chamber of Parliament where it was finally adopted.

The current constitution has so far been amended three times since its official promulgation in 2003.  

If approved by the Senate, the changes in the law will merge all three previous amendments.

The new law will have ten titles, 19 chapters and 192 articles. The Vice Speaker of Parliament, Polisi Denis, recently told The New Times that the interpretation will be done by the Supreme Court unlike the previous arrangement where it was done by the Parliament.

With the new constitution, laws going through the Senate before official approval will decrease significantly
Information from the parliament indicates that the new constitution will not necessitate a referendum.

Article 193 of the current constitution indicates only situations that concern the term of the President of the Republic, the system of democratic government based on political pluralism, or the constitutional regime established by this Constitution, especially the Republican form of the government or national sovereignty, can be decided through a referendum.

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