Opposition wants poll date debate in parliament starts today

Opposition under Tonse Alliance have ganged up to demand that the issue of the fresh presidential election date be tabled when parliament meets Monday afternoon.

Member of Parliament (MP) for Dowa East Richard Chimwendo Banda  and half a dozen other Malawi Congress Party (MCP) said this when they addressed a rally in Sunday in Dowa.

“We want this issue of an election date fixed as soon as possible. We don’t want to waste time on this one,” said Chimwendo.

Other legislators at the rally included George Zulu and Ulemu Msungama.

Chimwendo said the election should be held within the Constitutional Court prescribed 150 days which expires on July 3.

He said the Tonse alliance wants to deal with rampant tribalism and nepotism which has rocked the DPP-led government.

“We will have to hold the election within the 150 days. We will not respect what the DPP wants. We will not respect what an individual interim President Peter Mutharika wants,” he said.

Mutharika, in his State of the Nation address on Friday said parliament has the powers to fix the date for the election outside the court prescribed 150 days, saying parliament is supreme than the courts.

Following the Supreme Court of Appeal’s judgment on the presidential election case, Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC)  suggested that June 23 should be the date for the fresh presidential election and referred to Parliament to ‘normalise’ the date.

Speaker of Parliament Catherine Gotani Hara said the Business Committee—which comprises leaders of all political parties represented in the National Assembly— will be meeting  Monday  to discuss how Parlaiment  will approach a number of items on the agenda including the electoral bills.