A Tentative Constitution

In 1966, L. Ron Hubbard proposed a constitution for Rhodesia, which had just signed its Universal Declaration of Independence. He thought blacks would welcome this charter, even though it almost certainly guaranteed the white ruling minority would remain in power.

Hubbard's vision was for two legislative bodies, the Senate and the House. The country would be divided in districts with each district electing a Senator and Representative. All adults over the age of 16, without regard to race, could vote as long as they were Rhodesian citizens (with proof of birth in the country or legal recognition).

The Senate was the more powerful of the two houses: it would have elected the Prime Minister and Governor-General; ratified the Cabinet, Supreme Court, lower courts, judges, magistrates, and justices; controlled appropriations and national finances; and, of course, passed legislation. Its members were to be elected by "electors", that is, citizens who qualified to vote by demonstrating literacy in English and a working knowledge of the Constitution and laws, and who were financially responsible (qualifications that would prevent most blacks from voting for Senators). Certification of these qualifications would be on file with the government.

The responsibilities of the House included compiling the list of electors and verifying their certificates, though the Senate ratified the list. The House also would have passed legislation. Its members would have been voted into office by citizens (presumably including electors; i.e., electors voted for both Senators and Representatives but ordinary citizens voted only for Representatives).

[The text appears to be scanned and OCR'ed from a poor quality xerographic copy. It contains a number of errors, some of which appear to be in the original document (e.g., "representitives") and some of which are artifacts of the copying/scanning/OCR'ing process (e.g., missing text). -ed.K]

C O N S T I T U T I O N

A TENTATIVE CONSTITUTION OF THE NATION OF RHODESIA

Before God and Man we pledge ourselves, the overnment [sic] of Rhodesia and each of our officers and men [sic] authority in the Government to this the Constitution [sic] our country:

[sic] That our country be governed by

  1. The Prime Minister
  2. The Govenor-General [sic]
  3. The Cabinet of the Prime Minister
  4. The Senate
  5. The House
  6. The Supreme Court
  7. The Judiciary

That the Prime Minister shall be elected by the Senate.

That the Govenor-General [sic] shall be elected by the Senate and ratified by the Crown.

That the Cabinet shall be appointed by the Prime Minister and ratified by the Senate.

That the Roll of Electors shall be compiled by the House.

That the Senate shall be elected by the electors.

That the House shall be elected by the citizens of the land.

That the Supreme Court shall be appointed by the Prime Minister and ratified by the Senate.

That the Supreme Court shall nominate all judges, magistrates and justices, who will then be appointed by the Prime Minister and by the Senate.

That the House shall be elected by the people.

[sic] That the duties of each branch of the government are:

[Letter sequence in original is: a, b, e, d, f, g, h -ed.K]

  1. The Prime Minister shall be the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, the head of the Executive Branch, the head of all police and the Administrative head of the governnent.

  2. The Govenor-General [sic] shall be an Advisor to the Prime Minister and in charge of relations with the Crown and the arrangement and supervision of elections. But no other law or action or arrangement of the government of this country requires the future approval of the Governor-General of the Crown.

  3. The Cabinet shall consist of Ministers in charge, under the Prime Minister, of the various ministries of the government as defined under law from time to time by the Senate.

  4. The Senate shall handle in conclave assembled the finances and appropriations of the country and originate and pass Bills and laws, and for any bill or law passed by the Senate to be valid it must be signed as well by the Prime Minister.

  5. The House may originate and pass legislation and any bill or law so passed to be valid must be signed by the Prime Minister.

  6. The Supreme Court shall pass upon the legality of any legislation challenged and brought before it on the basis of Constitutionality. It shall decide on all cases, referred to it from lower courts. It shall arrange the composition, powers and extent of lower courts which measures are then to be ratified by the Senate and signed into law by the Prime Minister.

  7. The Judiciary, consisting of all judges, Magistrates and Justices, shall administer justice as defined by law with the procedures prescribed by law and without deviation from the Panel Codes that have been duly passed into law.

[sic] Every adult person in the country has the right to vote providing only that he or she is a citizen, regardless of race, colour or creed, 16 years of age or over, was born in the country or, lacking adequate proof of birth declares himself a resident and is accepted as a citizen on application to a court of law, with these provisions.

  1. Persons convicted of felonies or treason or who refuse to defend the state, the Constitution or its laws shall cease to be citizens.

  2. No law may be passed to prevent total registration of citizens.

  3. No tax or charge may be made otherwise to qualify citizens.

  4. No restraint may be applied to prevent citizens from coming to the polls.

  5. Ballot boxes shall be sealed.

  6. All ballots shall be secret.

  7. The Governor-General and his staff shall specify dates of election according to the Constitution, organise elections, preserve registers of voters and shall supervise the polling and the counting of ballots to ensure correctness, prevent double balloting and other abuses, and satisfy all as to the validity of the voting.

4. Citizens will vote for representitives [sic] of the House.

The Roll of Electors, consisting of all qualified electors shall be complied and verified by the House which must ascertain that each elector on the roll has his certificate [sic] of qualification and that no elector possessing his certificates of qualification has been omitted from the Roll. The House forwards the Roll to the Senate which ratifies it and sends it to the Prime Minister who must appoint the entire roll. The Prime Minister then forwards the Roll of Electors to the Governor-General who arranges for the election of the Senate, but that;

  1. Any unreasonable delay in preparing or forwarding, ratifying or appointing electors shall be unconstitutional and in event of refusal to compile, prepare, forward, ratify, appoint and arrange for the election or in the case of a grossly perverted Roll the Senate may prepare the Roll under the supervision of the Governor-General who shall make certain it contains all and omits no qualified electors and this Roll, then forwarded to the Prime Minister for appointment shall be given the Governor-General for his arrangement of the election.

[Normally there are at least 2 sub-items but there is no (b) in this case. As intended or missing item(s)? -ed.K]

6. The qualifications of an elector shall be as follows;

  1. A good standard of literacy in English. [sic]

  2. A good knowledge of the Constitution and the law but not of a standard requiring a full legal education;

  3. The taking of an oath to uphold the Constitution and the law of the land;

  4. An absence of any criminal history;

  5. Evidence of financial responsibility.

The dertification [sic] of literacy and knowledge of the Constitution and law shall be issued as a result of examination by the Minister of Education — composed solely by the Ministry of Education and administered and marked solely by his officers , [sic] is not open to challenge but may not be different from one person to the next.

The financial responsibility shall be certified by a bank.

Copies of the five certificates must be filed with the clerk of the House for compilation of the Roll of Electors.

7. An Elector:

  1. Is considered an officer of the state [sic]

  2. May not be paid or recompensed.

  3. May not be charged for examinations or certificates.

  4. May not be defined as to age, sex, race, colour or [sic]

  5. [sic] race, colour or creed providing only he or she is qualified and certified in accordance with Section 7.

  6. May be stricken from the Roll of Electors only for criminal acts proven and sentenced in a court of law, for refusing to uphold the Constitution or the law of the land, or for refusing to vote or not voting saving only severe illness at a time of election or, being absent from the country, not giving a specific proxy to a fellow elector.

  7. May not he denied his rights as a citizen.

  8. May bear any arms without any infringement by law: [sic]

  9. May be called upon by the Governor-General to assist in the organisation and polling of the citizens and keeping order in polling places and may not refuse to do so and specific electors may be specially designated by the Governor-General as the Election Supervision Comittee [sic] of a District which may then elect their chairman for the District, all subject to ratification by the House, Senate and Prime Minister.

  10. May not be found guilty of acts of self-defence or the protection of his family property or the property of the state or the preservation of order during a compaign or election.

5. [sic] An elector may help nominate and vote for one Senator from his election district in a general election and in bye-elections but in no case may have more than one vote for any one official.

9. It is clearely understood in this Constitution that an elector derives his power and vote directly from the House of Representitives [sic] as specified in this Constitution.

10. The principle of one man one vote is implicit in this Constitution and no voter may cast or be entitled to cast more than one vote in any election.

11. Candidates for Representitives [sic] in the House must be nominated by their political parties and need have no other qualification except:

  1. No person may campaign with promises that will burden the state with excessive taxation or will incite criminal acts;

  2. No candidate may have a criminal record;

  3. Those elected must familiarize themselves with the Constitution, the law, and Parliamentary procedure;

  4. Elected persons must swear to uphold the Constitution and laws of the country.

12. This country is to be divided into election districts and the number of reprensentitives [sic] to be elected shall be one for each district, the law so determining districts requiring passage by the Senate and House, approval of the Governor-General and the signature of the Prime Minister, but that districts may not be arranged or rearranged to deny or favour different races, parties, colour tribes or creed or have gross disparity of numbers of population.

13. Persons on the Roll of Electors in each district shall meet at election time and elect the Senate, one Senator from each election district.

14. The Senate shall then elect the Prime Minister and the Governor-General.

15. The Governor-General shall then be ratified by the Crown.

16. The terms of office of the Prime Minister, the Governor-General, Senators and Representitives [sic] shall be 12 years and may stand for reelection without limit. The term of office of a number [sic] of the Supreme Court shall be three years. The appointment of judges, magistrates and justices shall be for life or as recommended by the Supreme Court in each case and appointed by the Prime Minister and ratified by the Senate, and shall normally furnish the candidates for the Supreme Court, [sic] Judges of the Supreme Court may be re-appointed but may resume their lifetime posts if appointed to the Supreme Court from these. A judge, magistrate, justice or member of the Supreme Court may be recalled by the Prime Minister for refusing to uphold the Constitution and the law. Special elections may be held, as arranged by the Governor-General, for representitives [sic] in districts which cease to be represented in the House.

17. Senatorial elections may be held by reconvention of electors of a district by the Governor-General in case of vacancy.

18. A Prime Minister may be elected by the Senate at any time should a vacancy occur for any reason.

19. A Governor-General may be elected at any time by the Senate and ratified by the Crown should a vacancy occur.

20. As the first right of a state is to protect itself, any official seeking to overthrow the state by incitement to riot or violence or force of arms shall be charged by the Senate, or the electors assembled in his district, tried by the Supreme Court and if found guilty be executed or exiled for treason.

21. All officers of the state shall take an oath of office to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the country [sic] and charged by electors or the Senate shall be tried by the Supreme Court and if found guilty shall be punished for perjury if not treason and dismissed from office.

22. An incumbent government shall remain in power for six months after a general election when the new government shall then assume office and there shall be no authority in this new government until it takes office and all laws of the land stand until specifically modified or changed in accordance with this Constitution.

23. The Constitution and the laws of the country apply to all citizens.

24. The Constitution may not be amended without a three-quarters majority in the House and the Senate, the signature of the Prime Minister and the approval of [sic]