Deputy Speaker Mphande shames Malawi Parliament again
Malawi deputy Speaker of Parliament Juliana Mphande was at it again on Monday when she blatantly portrayed her incompetence to guide and drive proceedings in the House leading to chaos that forced some of the parliamentarians using swearing words directed at her.
For almost two hours Parliament came to a standstill as chaos engulfed the proceedings following Mphande’s giving of a ‘yes’ vote to the State Residences vote which was apparent that the House has rejected the vote as it passed the Committee of Supply stage.
The vote for State Residences was seeking an approval of K3.7 billion as its 2013/2014 budget allocation and Mphande was chairing the Committee of Supply stage when she failed to lead the House, prompting an early tea break.
The exchange of swearing words led to Karonga south’s Glad Chembe Munthali to be thrown out accused of insulting the Speaker. Mphande revoked section 103 of the standing orders.
The State Residences vote was the first to come on the floor in the Committee of Supply stage Monday afternoon.
After contributions from the members including MCP’s Joseph Njobvuyalema and a response from Minister of Finance Ken Lipenga, the second Deputy Speaker put a question on whether the House is agreeing with the allocation.
The members were divided over the ‘yes’ and the ‘no’ votes but with the ‘nos’ clearly showing that they had won the day and as soon as Mphande ruled the vote for the ‘yes’, members from the opposition stood up calling for a division.
Mphande ignored the call as well as point of orders that followed leading to the opposition exploding into anger and started trading uncontrollable shouts and insults of which some were directed at the Deputy Speaker herself.
The Deputy Speaker made further blunders when she forgot that she had limited powers as the chair of a Committee of Supply and decided to send out Chembe Munthali.
The ruling literary tore the House apart raining the impartiality of Mphande. More chaos came in after Mphande decided to go on the Speaker’s chair to ‘re-pronounce’ her ruling.
Chembe Munthali indeed went out but leaving the House on fire after again Mphande broke another protocol, making her pronouncement without the speaker’s head gear, the chaos forced the House into an early tea break.
Speaker Henry Chimunthu Banda had to address the House for business to continue on the other votes.
Two weeks ago the second Deputy Speaker also brought some comic moments in the House when she left a bill in suspense forgetting to pronounce it as passed, despite the House passing the bill.
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