Chakwera still wants to grill Mutharika in Malawi parliament: ‘Don’t be coward to answer outside the House’

Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president and leader of opposition in parliament, Lazarus Chakwera has renewed his call to ask President Peter Mutharika to come to parliament for President’s Question Time style-session as part of accountability politics.

Chakwera said Mutharika should behave like a coward responding to issues raised in Parliament outside the House.

“People should not be answering things said in Parliament outside of it. They should come to Parliament and debate national issues,”said the opposition leader.

He made the remarks on Sunday at a political rally he addressed after earlier attending a fundraising prayer service at Chenjewazi CCAP.

Chakwera said President Mutharika  should  oblige to the constitutional requirement by taking questions from legislators in the National Assembly.

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.

The call for presidential question time have received backing from the civil society with Center for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) executive director Timothy Mtambo and rights campaigner Billy Mayaya, saying Mutharika should appear before Parliament.

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