BJ wants Constitution amendment for President to have powers to fire veep
Veteran politician and former cabinet minister Brown James Mpinjanjira popularly referred to as BJ has said the country’s constitution should be amended to ensure the Head of State has powers to fire the deputy president.
In the current form of the Constitution, the President and commander-in-chief of the Malawi defence force and the Malawi police service, cannot sack the vice-president who is elected with him as runningmate in elections.
But Mpinganjira said such a law should be changed so that the President can be given prerogatrive powers to sack his deputy the way it pleases him/her to hire and fire Cabinet ministers.
“Lets allow the president to fire vice president,” Mpinganjira said on Times TV.
Mpinganjira who served on numerous ministerial positions from the United Democratic Front (UDF) regime, People’s Party (PP) where his final position was Minister of Information in the two years that PP ruled, noted that since the democratic dispensation in 1993, the President and his or her Vice have ended up in frosty relationships.
Former president Bakili Muluzi may have retained Justin Malewezi on the United Democratic Front ticket in 1999 after his first term, but the two fell out at the twilight of the second term when Muluzi wanted to elongate his time as State President, thwarting his deputy’s own ambitions.
Muluzi’s successor, the late Bingu wa Mutharika, never gelled with his vice, Cassim Chilumpha and dropped him for Joyce Banda in his 2009 re-election bid, but the romance did not last as Bingu lost confidence in her while she was Vice President.
When Banda became president after Bingu’s death in 2012, she hand-picked Khumbo Kachali as her Vice President only to dump him for Sosten Gwengwe as her running mate in 2014 with whom she lost to Mutharika.
Currently, vice-president Saulos Chilima resigned from the rulig ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) accusing it of “embarssing corruption” and practising nepotism.
The Malawi Constitution, in Section 80(3), stipulates that every presidential candidate, at the time of his/her nomination, must declare who shall be his/her first vice-president in the event he/she is elected. As may be apparent, this entails that a successful presidential candidate and his/her first vice-president are both elected by the citizenry through direct, universal and equal suffrage.
It is, in part, because both the president and the first vice-president are directly elected by the citizenry that the president cannot unilaterally remove a sitting first vice-president from office.
In other countries, South Africa, for example, the vice-president is appointed by the president and this has significant repercussions on the vice-president’s tenure of office.
The electoral system ensures that, in the ordinary course of events, Malawi has a president and first vice-president that are elected together.
But Mpinganjira said this should change.
However, commentators say there should not water down the Constitution to serve narrow interest, saying the President or Vice President can be removed, the principal mechanism being impeachment if there is serious violation of the Constitution.
“ We must keep striving towards the ideal of constitutionalism. The responsibility for ensuring the entrenchment of constitutionalism lies with all Malawians,” said Dr. Mwiza Nkhata, law lecturer at Chancellor College.
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I have been thinking about the same, we don’t need vice president here, Once I become an MP next year, ena mwa malamulo oyenela kusinthidwa ndi amenewa. Number of ministers to be fixed etc.
Mpinganjira anagwesedwa ndi nakhumwa. He will never be an MP again in Malawi. May be if goes to Mozambique.Bakili sanaminamizilre kuti wolanda akazi aeni ake. Mpinganjira kusauka mpakana kosowa pogwira ali ndimunyengerere nakhumwa amuuze APM kuti iye ndi wa DPP cholinga amunikhe kampando, ndi awa ali National Roads Authority. Munthu wopannda nzeru Mpinganjira. Ntchito kupempha zovala kwa achibale ali kunja.
Mpinganjira nanga akalakwa President anthu azitani?Monga pano bwana akowa aba ndalama tizitani?….
.Ndipo akuyankhula ngati ndani kuchipani?Chimene unapangapo wanzeru pamoyo wako kuposa kulephera chisankho nchiani?Munthuyu ndiomvesa chisoni kwabasi. Taonani zomwe akuyankhula zopanda nzeru ngati izo
…pano ukupusisa DPP kuti atenge chimunthu Banda chifukwa choti umadana ndi bakili miluzi.
Munthu woipa iwe. Siya ena alamule
Useless thinking Mpinganjira & who is Mpinganjira to think such a way that President is always right?
JB is right. That’s the only way we can keep a good relationship between the president and his vice.
Iwe leave JB alone. Uziti BJ.
We r crying of reducing the appointment powers of the sitting President ndiye wina is thinking of increasing those powers just bcoz anamupatsa u Chairman wa Roads Authority zoona a Malawi zimenezi? Shameful indeed
Mad person trying to give a wrong advice……. BJ palibe atakumvere iwe unatha longtime ago…moti wekha sumadziwa kodi
He can’t even win in his own home village
Well said! The change should also allow voters to fire the president any time during the five years if he/she iz on the wrong lane.
Thats a good one
Ndiwo umpinganjira umenewo. Zoganiza zake zankhanza basi. Ndiye mmene anawawongera amayi komanso bakili.
Why change a constitutional clause which ensures that there is respect between the two.
As a matter of fact, that is the only clause in our constitution that at least brings a bit of pride to us Malawians and guarantees that no matter how tribalistic (like Mpinganyere) a president can be, they can not toy around with an innocent sitting vice-president.
Akulu awa ofunika ku maula May 2019.
It takes wisdom to realise that your productive age is past gone. These people of BJ’s calibre are spent forces and should disappear from active political stage to pave way for vibrant young minds with fresh ideas to turn around things.
Malawi is the same old story which is embarrassing, abject poverty, abject poverty and abject poverty.
So that after Using him for campaign you then Fire the VP and Appoint Wanu .Anthu ozikonda Inu.
Mwachedwa nazo izi. Bakili anakutukwana kale describing you as a thief in K187 million Jeff wa Jeff ministry of education theft. He further said you grabbed Mr. Lossa’s wife. Bakili went on to say did you not see the D7s around his rallies. Anafunsa kuti mwa mkazi wa ana fayifi umamvamo chiyani. You are politically vapid.
A chitsiru opanda nzeru awa .
That wouldn’t make sense because the vice president was elected by the people and not the president. Unlike the ministers who are hand picked by the president and can be fired by the president.
How can a country develop with such shallow thinking.
This is the problem with old politicians. There answer to anything at all is amendment of the constitution. Mr BJ, remember that one day you may be a running mate for one of the aspiring presidential candidate (or probably be the VP). Imagine being fired by your own president because he just didn’t like you. Some of things Mr BJ, you need to be strategic and think of the implication of the amendments you’re proposing. Put people of Malawi first when it comes to matters of the country’s constitution.
BJ IS A PRODUCT MADE IN 1993 AND EXPIRED IN 2004 AND WILL BE DISPOSED OFF IN 2019 .KKKKKKKKKKK
What does the law say? Can the vise president be impeached without affecting the president
Awa afika pa uchitsiru umenewu?
It’s good that this fool will never ever become an MP in his life , these are the last kicks of a poor idiot.
We thank God we’ve lived long enough to see Bakili’s pointed word on BJ as a qualified crook he now is selling his soul to the DPP. His love for DPP funds supersedes his understanding of the Malawi constitution. A political prostitute who joined the PP administration upon JB ascendancy to power without any firing from vice presidency. The guy is worst pauper a disgrace to our long list of spent force exhausted veterans. NDA a street beggar from the founding figures of UDF
Mpinganjira lost his political relevance long time ago.
What an empty advice from an expired and spent politician!!!!
Aaaa kkkkkk koma zinazi kulota chichi??
Zoona opuma. But let say the president and his vice should stand and be elected as individuals so that you do not breach people’s choice and they can be from any political party. They should campaign for VP of a country as do MPz job
These remarks from the one you call veteran politician are nonsense.We must not allow these old politicians to rule us.Why is he not talking of impeaching the president?Lets amend the law that allows the president to be impeached than to be immuned.
Look at this fool??We are targetting reducing presidential powers then another big fool even goes against his own party manifesto he promised malawians in 2014.OLD DOGS MUST GO!!!!!
What sense can one get from Brown ?A failed politician, wonyenda litsani m’manja.
Useless politician Brown Mpinganjira who have no vision and can never add any value to our modern Malawi.Why he did not ask the parliamentarians to amend the 50+1% for one to become a President?This is one of the useless hand clappers we have been talking.He must be ashamed wherever he is.
Evangelist Brown Mpinganjira. So shameful.
Stupid, primitive and failed politician. A tidye nawo will always clap hands when they are not supposed to do so. This is typical of Mpinganjira. We shall see where you will be after May 2019 elections. The worst thing is that you will not even stand as a parliamentary candidate in any constituent let alone in Chisitu. because Nankhumwa won’t pave the way for you and wonya zake alibe mulandu is also eying the same constituency. They say to know a woman, live with a woman. No wonder Lizzie Losa left you in the cold – she saw total stupidity in you. Do you think you are more intelligent than the framers of the constitution? By the way it is the same man you are idolizing who was part of the team that framed the current constitution and what you are saying could well be interpreted as an insult to APM.
Awanso aBJ ndiachitsiru. You want Malawi to go back to dictatorial regime. Instead of saying the President’s powers must be trimmed iwe ukukamba zina.
Does anyone pay attention to this comedian and whatever comes out of his mouth. People like these need not be taken seriously. They entrenched corruption and nepotism during UDF time in government and exercebated decline of standards across all sectors of society. Go to hell if you have nothing to do with your empty lives. We need to strength our governance structures and not to weaken them further so that the interests of thieves are checked and thwarted. Piss off and leave our country alone. You have done enough damage!!!
Forgive him. He doesn’t know what he is talking about. The tragedy with him is that he does not know that no one takes him seriously in malawi.
It is very interesting to note that some politician will always join the losing parties. For how long has BJ been joining the weaker sides. This may also be a result of their own leadership styles when they once were in power. People may not sympathize with a character like this one here.
If the president can have power to fire the elected VP, then he should also have power to fire MPs. Can that happen? Now we know people who are giving bad advice to the president.
Pure evil,. The party elects the presidential candidate, the presidential candidate chooses his/her running mate and Malawians votes for the two. Now why should the president be given power to fire someone who was voted into office. The VP was voted into that position by Malawians, therefore no person should not have power to fire him/her. If the VP was appointed after an election, the president can have that power just like he does with cabinet ministers. If the president can fire his elected VP then he should also fire MPs.
Stop your nonsense mpinganjira.Mwakula mukapume muzikasegula manda pano.
Malawi does not need shallow minded people like Mpinganjira.You must say,law should be changed so that politicians like us must be banned from joining other parties once we loss election.
RIP Brown! ur time pasted just cause partying with APM does not mean ur relevant ur Baliki Muluzi is resting at Capoloma village I suggest u do like wise! We young folks want change and a young president as a matter of fact the we should fire the corrupt president by a vote of no confidence like zuma.
he is just a spent force, paja anapatsidwa u board member mbala ina iyo
awa nde achitsilu ena basi. instead of reducing Presidential Powers some Fool is advocating for archaic laws. SILLY