Malawi Parliament to introduce secret ballot voting

Government on Thursday was apprehensive when the Legal Affairs Committee of parliament introduced a new range of sweeping changes in the House, including secret ballot.

The Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee Maxwell Thyolera told the House time has come when parliamentarians should be using a secret ballot when voting during division time.

Division time is when parliamentarians vote on crucial matters and usually they vote according to what their respective parties tell them to do.

Currently, they vote through roll call.

Thyolera said members of parliament can still vote according to party line through the secret ballot.

However, suspicious government chief whip Henry Mussa asked Speaker  Richard Msowoya to curtail debate on the matter for a week so that the government side in parliament and other members of parliament study the document.

Msowoya agreed to the request by Mussa and said debate would be on Wednesday next week.