HARARE - The Constitution Select Committee (Copac) has completed the initial drafting of 18 chapters of the Constitution.

Copac announced the completion of the first stage of drafting amid a barrage of criticism from Zanu PF and war veterans that they were deliberately prolonging the process in a bid to delay elections.

Copac officials were also attacked for allegedly deliberately delaying to allow themselves access to more allowances.

The process began in 2009, with an outreach programme in 2010 where Zimbabweans’ views were gleaned.

Those views are now being incorporated into a draft charter expected to be put to public scrutiny at a forthcoming Second all-stakeholders conference.

In a statement, Copac said drafters have completed a preliminary proposed draft of 18 chapters “based on the issues that were agreed upon.”

“In doing their work, the drafters were guided by the drafting instructions given to them by the Select Committee,” the select committee statement said.

“They used the constitutional issues distilled from the national report which contains submissions for the new draft that came from the people during the outreach phase.

“Discussions on the first four chapters are nearly complete, and the following two weeks will be characterised by intense work where the Select Committee shall discuss the rest of the chapters submitted by the drafters on January 23.”

Copac said decisions on issues on which consensus has not been reached is also expected to be taken during that time.

Copac chairpersons earlier told a press briefing that four chapters that had been leaked to the state media was “work in progress” that had misled people on issues covered.

Copac officials said they were pushing to complete the whole drafting stage by the end of this month.

After the drafting, the Second all-stakeholders conference will follow affording an opportunity to the public to comment on the issues before the draft is submitted to Parliament. From Parliament, the draft will be put to a referendum.

A tense atmosphere engulfed the last press briefing after a group of war veterans took turns to spit venom at Copac co-chairpersons alleging the process was now a money-spinning exercise for them.

Zanu PF co-chair Paul Mangwana dismissed claims that Copac is a money making venture for the select committee as alleged by the war veterans saying they are pushing for the drafting to be finished by the end of this month.

Zimbabwe’s war veterans have been calling for Copac to be disbanded ostensibly because “it had betrayed the views of the people of Zimbabwe.”

Zimbabwe Liberation War Collaborators (Ziliwaco) had earlier threatened Copac with legal action, citing a number of irregularities in the drafting of the new constitution.