Mutharika assents to Malawi dual citizenship law

President Peter Mutharika has assented to the amendment to the Citizenship Act which now provides for dual citizenship law in the country, Nyasa Times learnt at Parliament on Tuesday.

This was disclosed by Speaker of Parliament Richard Msowoya during announcements to the House at the start of the Mid-year Budget Review Meeting in Lilongwe.

He said among the Bills that were sent to the President to assent, the  Dual Citizenship has been given the nod.

The new law repeals Sections 8 to 11 of the Citizenship Act which dealt with citizenship of children born outside Malawi, loss of citizenship if a person acquires another citizenship other than by marriage and loss of citizenship by a Malawian woman who marries a foreigner unless she denounces her other citizenship.

It  allows for dual citizenship for Malawians with government’s hope of improving socio-economic activity among Malawians.

For children born in the diaspora, the repeal of Section 7, which obligated them to denounce their country of birth upon reaching 21 years, would enable them to reconnect with Malawi better as opposed to being treated as foreigners and applying for visa’s in a country of their parents’ birth.

Leader of House Kondwani Nankhumwa disclosed that  Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe will make his statement on Friday, March 8.

It is anticipated that the budget could be cut by as much as K32 billion from the recurrent expenditure and about K28 billion from the development budget to make up for the K60 billion that the World Bank has not disbursed but was factored into the budget.

Nankhumwa said the programme for the budget meeting would remain traditional with Tuesday and Thursday mornings catering for questions to ministers for oral replies and Wednesdays for committee reports.

The two-week meeting is  the final for the current cohort of Parliament ahead of the May 21 Tripartite Elections.