Parliament has approved an amendment to the Presidential (Transition) Act 2012 that will compel an outgoing President and his Vice to exit their official bungalows one month before swearing-in of the new President on January 7.

The new Presidential (Transition) Act grants the Office Administrator General legal powers to forcefully evict an outgoing President and his or her Vice when they exceed the grace period.

Under the new legislation, Ministers of State and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) also have up to three months to vacate government bungalows or face forceful eviction.

Legislators who pushed for the passage of the law believe the new law will give the requisite power to the Administrator General to efficiently ensure a smooth transition from one administration to the next.

The law is expected to end instances of administrative lapses, forced evictions and seizure of vehicles that have characterised the transition processes.

The Presidential (Transition) Act, 2012 (Act 845) was enacted to establish arrangements for the political transfer of administration from an out-going democratically elected President and to provide for related matters.

The Law made provision for accountability, institutional clarity and structured time for managing the transition process to avert the challenges experienced in previous transitions.

However, when Act 845 was first implemented, some challenges were experienced.

Arguments were advanced to the effect that, even though Act 845 makes provision for the transfer of power to an incumbent President re-elected for a second term, it was vague.

In the case where an incumbent is re-elected, Act 845 simply states that the President shall designate members of the Transition Team. A limit was not set on the size of the Transition Team.

Furthermore, Act 845 did not make provisions for the tenure of Office of the Transition Team.

Sections 11 and 12 of Act 845 which deal with the issue of swearing-in of Members of Parliament and the election of the Speaker two days before the inauguration of the President, posed a challenge as to whether the inauguration of Parliament two days before dissolution, was not in conflict with Article 113 of the 1992 Constitution.

Also, Act 845 provided for the appointment of an Administrator-General to be responsible for the management of the Executive estate, assets as well as the transition process.

However, it does not empower the Office of the Administrator-General to deal with possible breaches, hence the introduction of the Bill to elaborate on some of the provisions of the Act.