Malawi parliament reconvenes Monday over delayed budget

Blantyre, Malawi - The budget session the Malawi parliament reconvenes in the capital, Lilongwe, to discuss and consider the 2008/09 national budget Monday, over a month after the budget was supposed to be in place.

The budget session was suspended 20 June after the opposition, which dominates the 193-member parliament, insisted that the budget could not be discussed unless all members of parliament who defected from opposition parties to join President Bingu wa Mutharika's newly-founded Democratic Progress Party (DPP) are expelled from the House, according to the constitution.

Mutharika quit the former ruling United Democratic Front (UDF), on whose ticket he ironically won the 2004 general elections, after falling out with his mentor-turned-enemy, former President Bakili Muluzi.

Mutharika said he quit the UDF because its leaders, including Muluzi, opposed his tough anti-corruption policy.

Since then there has been acrimony between Mutharika's minority government and the opposition leading to the opposition blocking all government bills in parliam e nt, including the 2008/09 budget.

President Mutharika has since decreed that Monday's budget session would only be for 10 days and if the budget was not passed after that he would be forced to rule by decree.

But the opposition has described President Mutharika's threats as "traits of dictatorship".

George Mtafu, the UDF Leader in Parliament, said Mutharika's decision to convene parliament was irregular since it was the sole responsibility of the Speaker of Parliament to do so and determine its duration.

"Bingu is flauting the Constitution and we cannot allow him that luxury," he said, adding "Malawians have chosen pluralistic democracy."

Deputy president of the opposition Peoples Progressive Party (PPM) Mark Katsonga Phiri said Mutharika should have waited for a negotiated settlement in the clergy-led mediation talks.

The clergy, led by head of the Catholic Church in Malawi, Archbishop Tarcizius Ziyaye, is trying to broker a solution to the current political impasse.

Analysts say the current session may not yield much as both sides do not want to compromise on their positions.

The delay in passing the budget is threatening the government's much-touted farm input subsidy programme and preparations for the forth-coming May 2009 general elections.