Malawi leader orders assembly to reconvene in row

Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika ordered parliament on Thursday to reconvene, raising the stakes in a political battle of wills with the opposition-controlled assembly over the budget.

The president instructed the speaker to reconvene parliament on Monday, his office said on national radio.

On Wednesday, Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe vowed to go ahead with spending without parliament's approval.

Parliament should have passed the budget for 2007-08 by June 30, but the vote was delayed by an official mourning period following the death of first lady Ethel wa Mutharika in May.

The opposition coalition of the United Democratic Front and the Malawi Congress Party have refused to debate the $1.2 billion budget until a dispute over the poaching of its members by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was resolved.

"The president has asked all parliamentarians to convene on Monday next week to discuss the budget and pass it because of its importance to the country," presidential spokesman Chikumbtso Mtumodzi told state radio.

Malawi's top court in June upheld a ruling which gave powers to the parliament speaker to expel legislators who defected to wa Mutharika's breakaway DPP party, a move which could leave the DPP with as few as five MPs in Malawi's 193-seat parliament.

But DPP legislators obtained an injunction to prevent the speaker from declaring their seats vacant, further infuriating the opposition.

The row dragged on as Malawians showed deep frustration that public spending was held up in the impoverished country.

Some Malawians long for the past as parliament remains suspended and their president and politicians dig in for what appears to be a protracted battle.

Scores of peasant farmers protested by holding a vigil at the burial site of late President Hastings Kamuzu Banda, founding father of the nation.

Glandson Nyirongo, a farmer from the north of the southern African country, travelled more than 300 km (185 miles) to join the protest.

"I depend on farming, I cannot survive without that and that's why I am here today because I need the fertiliser," said Nyirongo on his second night there.

Malawi has faced political upheaval since wa Mutharika fell out with the opposition and targeted officials in an anti-corruption campaign.