Chakwera set for Malawi MPs grilling on Thursday: President questions style-session

President Lazarus Chakwera is set to write a new history in Malawi politics as he is set to appear before National Assembly in Lilongwe  and  face His Excellency’s Question Time (HEQs) style-session questions from Members of parliament this coming Thursday.

State House through its Press Secretary Brian Banda has confirmed.

Chakwera promised that he will be giving a chance to MP’s to directly ask him burning issues right in the august House.

The MP’s are likely to draw questions from the State of the Nation (SONA) which President Chakwera presented in the house last Friday.

The SONA has received mixed reactions with the opposition leader Kondwani Nankhumwa saying the speech never tackled issues Malawians were expecting such as cheapest fertilizer and creation of one million jobs.

Chakwera’s predecessor Peter Mutharika had always snubbed the questions to the president session when called and instead delegated a senior cabinet minister to answer on his behalf.

According to Section 89 (3) of the Constitution, the President is required to submit himself before Parliament without necessarily being invited by anyone as he does with the State of the Nation Address.

Former president Bakili Muluzi faced the then Leader of Opposition Gwanda Chakuamba in an exciting and historic question time in the 1990s.

Malawian professor of law based at the University of Cape Town, Danwood Chirwa, clarified thatthe President “is constitutionally obliged to appear before Parliament every year, immediately before the consideration of the budget.”