Malawi opposition geared to keep Joyce Banda’s govt on its toes
Trouble is looming for the ruling Peoples Party (PP) in the National Assembly as Parliamentarians begin their business on Monday during the 44th session of the House.
This follows a sudden change in the status quo of the House sitting where all of a sudden opposition legislators have outnumbered the PP after some parliamentarians belonging to the former ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and United Democratic Front (UDF) went back to their opposition benches.
President Joyce Banda opened the 44th session of the 193-member House last Friday where an order paper indicated that her government side now has only 83 lawmakers against 110 for the opposition side.
The opposition has since vowed to keep government on its toes as has been the tradition whenever the status quo remains that way.
Since the last sitting of parliament, most legislators, mostly from the DPP who defected to the governing party after it took over power, have been ditching PP again and going back to their former sides.
DPP Spokesperson Nicholas Dausi predicted that more MPs who ditched the party would come back and their coming would create more troubles in the august House for the already weakening governing party.
“We welcome those that are coming back to the party. Their decision only demonstrates that nothing substantial occurred to them when they were in the PP camp.
“We are particularly happy because these numbers are a sign that we will keep government on its toes,” hinted the language-showy politician.
Some of the “lost” DPP parliamentarians who have returned to their former party include Daniel Liwimbi, Grain Malunga (both former ministers in PP), Wilfred Nawena and Albert Thindwa who have since officially written the speaker about their decision.
Apart from the DPP lawmakers, those from the UDF camp have also decided to leave government after the party cut its ties with government a few months ago.
The party’s leader Atupele Muluzi who was also offered a senior ministerial position by President Banda suddenly resigned from government in order to concentrate on his party affairs as well as to freely and independently drum up support for his 2014 presidential bid.
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