Chakwera hosts Tonse Alliance legislators
President Lazarus Chakwera on Wednesday morning hosted members of Parliament (MPs) from the government side at the Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe.
In an interview, Leader of the House Richard Chimwendo Banda confirmed the meeting took place, but declined to provide further details.
He said: “It is a tradition that we have these internal meetings. It is nothing new. We normally have two or three of these meetings during parliamentary meetings. Even our friends from the opposition do have these caucuses.”
According to sources privy to the meeting, all MPs belonging to parties in the Tonse Alliance attended except Alliance for Democracy (Aford).
In a separate interview, the People’s Party (PP) spokesperson Ackson Kalaile Banda, described on Wednesday’s meeting as “one of those regular meetings where the President meets with MPs from the government side.”
He confirmed that PP legislators attended the meeting but he, too, could not give details of the deliberations.
Leader of UTM Party in Parliament Chrissie Kanyasho also described the meeting as a discussion pertaining to budgetary issues.
“We were having a caucus with the President. We attended as usual. It was about the budget session and priorities of government,” she said.
On his part, Aford leader in Parliament Yeremiah Chihana lamented that his party was sidelined from the meeting.
He speculated that he may have been left out because Aford has, from the beginning of the alliance, not had proper bargaining power in the partnership.
However, Vice-President Saulos Chilima, leader of UTM Party, a key partner along with Chakwera’s Malawi Congress Party, did not attend the caucus.
A source who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Chilima sent an apology as he was attending to an emergency.
When Parliament is meeting, there are sticky businesses that require political leaders to garner unified support from MPs, including those from the opposition.
Chakwera opened the 2022/23 National Budget Meeting last Thursday by delivering the State of the Nation Address, setting the tone of the budget meeting.
With the budget set to be presented next Friday, some budgetary allocations as well as controversial Bills tend to be contentious and require the support of more MPs to pass.
