Malawi parliament to meet for two weeks to approve budget

The Malawi Parliament, which President Bingu wa Mutharika suspended last Friday for failing to meet his deadline to approve the national budget, will once again meet for another two weeks to finalise the adoption and passing of the 2008/09 expenditure following an agreement by the opposition and government sides on the way forward, APA learnt here Tuesday.

According to sources, both sides have met to decide the way forward towards approving the budget following Mutharika\’s order to close parliament, arguing that the opposition parliamentarians were being irresponsible for not passing it within the previously allotted ten days.

An opposition member of the Business Committee of Parliament, Friday Jumbe, told APA during an interview that the MP’s will continue meeting for two weeks until the budget is adopted and passed.

\"We have set aside to ourselves a maximum period of two weeks to finalise the adoption and passing of this year\’s budget,\" he said.

He said the president was not supposed to close parliament because all members were contributing and we were in our final stage to pass it.

Meanwhile, Speaker of the National Assembly, Louis Chimango, said he was consulting to see as to when parliament could be reconvened for the budget discussions.

\"I am asking all members of parliament to stick around and wait for the day to be announced by our office,\" he said in a radio announcement.

Mutharika, on his departure for the recent SADC summit in South Africa on Friday, ordered the closure of parliament and accused MP’s for acting irresponsibly.

No date has been set for the meeting.