Democracy Works Foundation regional director Augustine Magolowondo and political analyst Henry Chingaipe have said political parties represented in the National Assembly need functional caucuses to strengthen Parliament.
They said this during a training and validation workshop for a training module on the role of political party caucuses in Parliament, which took place at Ufulu Gardens in Lilongwe on Saturday.
Chingaipe said where political party causes are weak, the respective parties cannot make significant contributions to Parliament let alone the development of the country.
He said: “What we mean is that political party causes should have the capacity to coordinate and discuss issues based on their understanding and point of view so that when they go to Parliament they should go as a unit not individuals. That way they can give meaningful contribution.”
Chingaipe said to strengthen the functionality of political party causes, Democracy Works Foundation commissioned a study which identified gaps that led to the development of the training module which was being validated.
Among the issues, the document looks at how a member of Parliament (MP) can balance his roles and the interests of a political party and how parliamentarians can work with their constituents to represent them well.
On his part, Magolowondo said political party representatives and MPs were engaged for the workshop to get their views on the module.
Leader of the United Democratic Front in Parliament Nedson Poya, who is also Zomba Ntonya parliamentarian, said the module will help to improve the performance of Parliament in general
