AG nods to UDF move
Attorney General (AG) Kalekeni Kaphale has given Speaker of Parliament Richard Msowoya the green light allowing United Democratic Front (UDF) members of Parliament (MPs) to join their Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) counterparts on the government benches in Parliament.
UDF requested the Speaker for the move as part of the two parties’ working relationship that saw, among others, UDF president Atupele Muluzi drafted in President Peter Mutharika’s Cabinet as Minister of Energy, Natural Resources and Mining.
UDF has 14 MPs and moving to the government side would increase DPP’s numerical strength to 65, excluding independent MPs who were allocated seats as backbenchers.
UDF confirmed in an interview on Monday that the Office of the Speaker communicated the opinion from the AG on Thursday, the day before Parliament adjourned sine die.
The party’s spokesperson Ken Ndanga said with the go-ahead from the Speaker’s legal adviser, UDF MPs would be required to move to the government benches when Parliament meeting resumes in May for the 2015/16 budget deliberations.
Said Ndanga: “The opinion from the Attorney General is that there is no problem with the members of Parliament of UDF to sit on the government side. They will not be contravening any law.”
He brushed aside continuing dissent from the 14 UDF MPs some of whom had earlier expressed dissatisfaction that it was the party’s leadership outside Parliament which initially wrote the Speaker to make the request.
UDF chief whip in Parliament Lilian Patel yesterday confirmed writing the Speaker a fresh letter that the party’s MPs had agreed to sit on the government side.
She said: “We have had caucuses on this matter and everybody has agreed that we will sit on the government side.”
Earlier, party secretary general Kandi Padambo wrote the Speaker a week before the Mid-Year Budget Review meeting asking him to relocate UDF MPs because of the “parliamentary coalition” between UDF and DPP.
A legal opinion from lawyer David Kanyenda accompanied Padambo’s letter indicating that by remaining in their respective parties they would “eliminate any prospect of being caught by the dictates of Section 65.”
Constitutional law expert Edge Kanyongolo, who is an associate professor of law at the University of Malawi’s Chancellor College, supported Kanyenda’s opinion in an interview, arguing that Section 65 did not refer to the physical movement of MPs in the House, but the act of leaving one political party to join another or an organisation whose objectives are political in nature.
Kaphale confirmed providing the legal opinion to the Speaker on UDF’s request.
UDF MPs interviewed by The Nation two weeks ago expressed mixed reactions on the proposed move, with some saying it was against the wishes of their constituents who voted them to Parliament based on UDF ticket. Yet others said they would comply for fear of reprisals and jeopardising their political future.
