Supreme Court rules for sitting of Malawi Parliament

Supreme Court of Appeal judge, Justice Atanazio Tembo, Wednesday set aside an earlier injunction by High Court judge, Justice Joseph Mwanyungwa, restraining Speaker Louis Chimango from reconvening the suspended budget session of Parliament.

This followed an appeal by Attorney General Jane Ansah who argued before the judge that issues of national interest must be considered in the current political impasse that has seen the country running without a budget for two months.

"The judge [Tembo] has given his ruling to the effect that the order made by Justice Manyungwa is stayed...So basically what it means is that Parliament is free to meet. The Speaker is at liberty to call for the sitting of Parliament," Jane Ansah told PANA after the ruling.

Speaker of Parliament Louis Chimango was forced to suspend proceedings of the budget session of Parliament indefinitely for the fourth time following a political stalemate where the opposition is insisting it cannot discuss the national budget unless MPs who quit their parties to join President Bingu wa Mutharika's newly-formed Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are expelled from Parliament.

on Sunday, Manyungwa issued an order preventing the Speaker from complying with President Bingu wa Mutharika's directive to reconvene the suspended Parliament to discuss and pass the long-overdue national budget.