Government proposes 12 new bills

Parliament starts meeting today and government will likely propose 12 new bills during the four-week meeting.

There have been expectations that government would finally submit a legislation on electoral reforms, but this does not form part of the list of bills to be tabled after the government side exhausts old business from the previous meeting.

Opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has threatened to make government “ungovernable” if it does not bring to Parliament bills which propose changes to the electoral legislation landscape.

But in an interview yesterday, leader of the House George Chaponda said while he could not list the 12 bills, among them would be an amendment to the Money Laundering Act and the Political Parties Registration Bill.

He said bills addressing electoral reforms would not be among the bills to be tabled.

Said Chaponda: “This is an ordinary meeting of Parliament so much of the business will be carried over from the last meeting. But there will be 12 new bills whose list will be published on Wednesday.”

The Political Parties Bill has been in development for close to 15 years and has only been formalised this year.

However, the Attorney General’s chambers has pointed out reservations to the Bill, as establishing such an independent registrar for political parties could be a waste of public resources given the infrequent registration of parties that arise.

Chaponda said business leftover from the previous meeting would include ministerial statements on the food situation in the country and the Malata and Cement subsidy progress.

Bills carried over would include Land Registration Bill and the Access to Information Bill which was referred to the Media and Communications Committee for scrutiny.

Chaponda said the committee would be reporting back on the Bill after which the legislation process would continue. n