Malawi parliament pressures president on funding

LILONGWE, June 29 (Reuters) - Malawi's opposition-controlled parliament approved skeleton emergency funding for government operations on Friday, turning down a larger government request amid a bitter stand-off with President Bingu wa Mutharika.

Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe had asked for $32 million to keep the government running for four months after passage of the national budget was delayed by a period of mourning for the president's late wife.

But opposition legislators, who control 103 of parliament's 193 seats, approved only $8 million for one month in a move seen pressuring wa Mutharika's government to back down in a dispute over allocation of parliamentary seats.

"In view of the way parliament is presently structured, with injunctions against the Speaker, I don't think we can take such a major decision but instead reduce the amount of money government wants from $32 million to $8 million and reduce the months from four months to a month," opposition leader John Tembo said in parliament.

Gondwe, speaking after the vote, said the funding hold up could have serious effects for Malawi, one of the poorest nations in the world where the majority of people live on less than $1 per day.

"This reduction is going to have its own negative impact because we will have to remove some of the priority spending and concentrate on a few developmental projects," Gondwe told reporters.

Malawi's top court this month upheld a ruling which would prevent legislators who defected to wa Mutharika's breakaway Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) from keeping their seats, a move which could leave the DPP with as few as five MPs in Malawi's 193-seat parliament.

Dozens of DPP legislators, including a number of cabinet ministers, this week obtained an injunction to prevent the Speaker from declaring their seats vacant, further infuriating the opposition and spurring Friday's funding vote.

The row comes at a delicate moment. Parliament should have passed this year's national budget by Monday, but the vote was delayed by the official mourning period called following the death of first lady Ethel wa Mutharika in May.

An opposition coalition of the Malawi Congress Party and the United Democratic Front already control 103 seats in parliament, and hope the court ruling on the DPP defectors will give their coalition the two-thirds majority needed to pass measures including constitutional amendments.

Last week the two parties threatened to derail any government business in parliament, including the 2007/08 national budget, unless the speaker was allowed to declare the seats vacant as per court ruling.