Speaker asked to resign

Speaker of National Assembly Louis Chimango has been humbly requested to abdicate his post due to lack of confidence from opposition legislators for his open bias towards government.

Malawi Congress Party (MCP) lawmaker for Mchinji south-west, Godfrey Zulu asked Chimango on Tuesday to "honourably resign".

"The Speaker should resign honourably. He has failed to stamp his authority as an impartial head of the legislature," said Zulu.

Chimango's refusal to invoke Section 65, which would remove defecting lawmakers largely from the government side, has put him in bad blood with the opposition.

He also angered the opposition on Tuesday when he included on the order paper government loan authorisation bill, which was defeated on Monday.

Blantyre South independent MP Gerald Mponda argued against the inclusion of the bill in the order paper.

"We are surprised by Speaker’s conduct, as a learned lawyer who is well conversant with the our Constitution and Standing Orders for conduct of parliamentary business, he can not allow a business committee which he chairs to include a defeated bill," said Mponda.

"Every MP knows that a defeated bill can not be brought to the same sitting. This clearly vindicates that he is under the influence of President," he pointed out.

Chimango conceded and removed the bill from the order paper.

MCP, the party, which sponsored his candidature for Speaker, is in the forefront to, have him axed.

"The speaker is an embarrassment to the party because it is now clear that he is not independent of the executive," MCP president John Tembo said.

Tembo who is also leader of the opposition alleged that Chimango is being used by President Mutharika to disenfranchise the opposition.

"The president is using him to frustrate the opposition," Tembo said.

Opposition MPs are currently refusing to stand-up as required when the Speaker is entering and going out of the chamber, in open demonstration of lack of confidence over his leadership.

However, Deputy Speaker Esther Mcheka Chilenje-Nkhoma received a stand-up respect from the opposition benches when she briefly assumed the chair’s role.

The call for Chimango to resign is not a new one. President Mutharika also issued a statement calling for his resignation for misleading him into assenting to a bill that had not been debated in Parliament.

Mutharika said Chimango submitted a World Bank funded power interconnection bill for his approval, before it had not been debated and passed, as the law requires.

The Speaker apologised for the mess but analysts and activist demanded an enquiry report, which its findings have not been made public.

University of Malawi Chancellor College political science Professor Blessing Chisinga contended that the Speaker might not have acted on his own but acted under pressure to push through the bill for assent to the President and that Mutharika’s resignation call was to save face after being exposed.

"Yes the Speaker erred in forwarding to the President a bill that had not been debated in parliament. But I think one needs to go a step further, especially, in the context of the President’s tendencies to bulldoze his way, even if it means violating the constitution," Chisinga noted.

Opposition MP’s says they will try to push for Speaker’s impeachment motion if he fails to voluntary quit.