Malawi parliament adjourns after chaos erupts among MPs

APA-Lilongwe (Malawi) Amid acrimony, the Malawi parliament sitting in Lilongwe adjourned Tuesday indefinitely following opposition leader John Tembo’s demands to deliberate on political issues first before scrutinising the country’s 2007/08 budget.

Tembo, who is leader of the opposition in parliament and president of his Malawi Congress Party (MCP), said he and fellow opposition MPs were not in a position to respond to the budget until matters of Section 65 were sorted out.

The so-called matters of Section 65 emanates from a part of the constitution that calls for the declaration of vacant seats for MPs who defect from the party that sponsored them into parliament to the government side in a move the section describes as “crossing the floor.”

Several MPs who allegedly crossed the floor to support government in the House, last Thursday obtained an injunction to restrain the Speaker of Parliament Louis Chimango from declaring their seats vacant.

The MPs obtained the injunction against the Speaker following a 15 June Supreme Court of Appeal ruling that Section 65, which the government had maintained was unconstitutional, was indeed valid.

"We are requesting government through the Attorney General to vacate the injunction against the Speaker to allow him act accordingly," Tembo, a longtime aid of the late dictator President Kamuzu Banda, said.

"The injunction must be withdrawn to get rid of all strangers. This will allow only bona fide members to continue with the proceedings," he said.

Tembo observed that members of opposition took the budget very seriously but could not allow it to be passed with members who are victims of Section 65.

He called for the implementation of the court’s ruling on Section 65 and a commitment from government that legislators supporting it should withdraw the court injunction against the Speaker restraining him from acting on opposition demands to declare defectors’ seats vacant.

But leader of government business in parliament, Henry Chimunthu Banda, argued that the injunction was not from government but from individual legislators led by Yunus Mussa, a newly appointed deputy minister who got elected to parliament on the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF)’s ticket.

Banda appealed to the House to proceed with government business, wondering what would happen if the court ruling took more than a month or two to be sorted out.

Banda’s appeal fell on Tembo’s deaf ears, leaving Speaker Chimango with no choice but to end the acrimonious debate by abruptly adjourning the proceedings sine die.

Tembo’s MCP has lost three MPs, who were later appointed ministers, to the government side.

This may explain his bitterness with the government of President Bingu wa Mutharika’s failure to let the Speaker make a ruling on the defectors.