DPP MPs locked out of Parliament
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) parliamentarians had a rude awakening on Tuesday when, upon arriving at Parliament gates, they were met by heavy security presence preventing those on the list from entering the Parliament premises.
The list had 24 names of members of Parliament (MPs) who had been blocked from entering the House after Speaker Catherine Gotani Hara invoked Standing Order 105 (6) due to the MPs’ defiance of her orders in the House on Monday.
The MPs included Mary Navicha, who has been appointed as Leader of Opposition in Parliament by the DPP, to replace Kondwani Nankhumwa. Other DPP MPs joined them in solidarity.
In a communication made at the start of the Parliamentary proceedings on Tuesday, Gotani Hara said the figure has swelled from five initial MPs to 24 because the other 19 also disobeyed her by remaining standing when she told them to sit.
The MPs gathered at the entrance and their vehicles blocked others from entering the premises, forcing the other MPs to use an entrance reserved for Cabinet ministers and the State President.
At the beginning of business on Tuesday, the Speaker clarified what led to the 24 MPs being penalised with Section 105 of the Standing Orders.
Said Hara: “Honourable Members, according to Standing Order 105(3)(a), if Members have been named jointly or otherwise, for the first occasion, they are supposed to be suspended from the House for a period of two sitting days. I therefore made this ruling to this effect implying that this sanction has been meted on all of them.”
While the MPs were camping at the entrance, Kondwani Nankhumwa was responding to President Lazarus Chakwera’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) in Parliament.
The defiant MPs danced and chanted songs while at the entrance.
However, the dancing did not last long. The MPs later gathered for a caucus at a flower garden in front of the Parliament gate.
Navicha addressed the crowd, bemoaning the Speaker’s position to ban them from Parliament for two days.
In an interview, political scientist Boniface Dulani said as disappointing as it may be to have such a large group of legislators outside Parliament, the MPs also needed to respect the rules of the House.
“Parliament is a house of rules, and it cannot be the first to break them, no matter how justified the reasons,” he said.
During the deliberations on Tuesday, the Speaker announced that the DPP would be allocated time to respond to the Sona when Navicha and others return to the House tomorrow.
