Malawi coalition on edge

Malawi’s supreme court is due to deliver a much-anticipated ruling on Friday which could lead to mass expulsions of MPs and the collapse of President Bingu wa Mutharika’s minority government.

The court is to determine whether the speaker of parliament should have the power to expel some 60 MPs -- half of whom are loyal to Mutharika’s government -- who have changed their party affiliation since being elected, court sources said.
If Chief Justice Leonard Unyolo and two other senior judges grants the speaker the power to expel the lawmakers after parliament reconvenes on June 29, it could pave the way for mass by-elections to the 193-member parliament.

The judgment will be the climax to a long-running dispute which has already been before the lower courts, with Mutharika himself leading the pressure for a definitive ruling after opposition parties began pushing for the expulsions.

Mutharika, who had poached dozens of opposition and independent lawmakers to join his Democratic Progress Party, decided to take the case to the supreme court last January to appeal a ruling by the constitutional court which granted the expulsion powers to the speaker, Louis Chimango.

The speaker has yet to make his intentions clear but is widely expected to expel the lawmakers given his background as a member of the opposition Malawi Congress Party. –Sapa-AFP