CONSTITUTION Select Committee co-chairperson Paul Mangwana has dismissed as false and misleading reports from some sections of the media that the country will only go for elections after the production of a new constitution. In an interview this week, Mangwana said the real position regarding the constitution-making process and elections was that the plebiscite would be held after the country goes for a referendum which may or not produce a new constitution. He said it should be understood by all that a referendum does not necessarily produce a new constitution like what happened in 2000, hence the need to set the record straight that elections will be held after the final stage of the constitutionmaking process. In 2000, the country held a referendum, but failed to produce a new constitution resulting in the nation reverting back to the Lancaster House Constitution. “It is true and an open secret that COPAC is currently engaged in a constitutionmaking process, but while we are doing so, it is critical that facts are told as they are so that we will not have confusion and the misconceptions that are now emanating from other publications,” he said. “The true position regarding elections is that, we will hold them after we go for a referendum, which may or may fail to produce a new constitution not what the false and misleading reports that are coming from some sections of the media that a new constitution is the basis for the holding of elections. “Right now we are marching towards that final step of the constitution-making which is the referendum, which I must emphasise that may or may fail to produce a new constitution; and we should be clear on that one.” In the event that the referendum fails to produce a new constitution, Mangwana said the country would go for elections using the current constitution minus Amendment Number 19 which carries the Global Political Agreement (GPA). “If we fail to produce a new constitution, we will revert back to the current Lancaster House Constitution, but minus Amendment 19 which brought about the inclusive Government,” he said. “The position is that the principals to the GPA will sit down and dissolve the GPA so that elections are held.”