UDF MPs take on speaker

• High Court to hear Section 65 application Thursday

The High Court in Lilongwe is this Thursday set to hear an application by 11 United Democratic Front (UDF) members of Parliament (MPs) facing possible expulsion from the National Assembly over their alleged crossing of the floor.

In their application, the MPs want the court to declare illegal and unreasonable

Speaker of Parliament Richard Msowoya’s actions regarding their status in the House.

In the judicial review case, the bone of contention is Msowoya’s alleged lack of impartiality in allowing a petition by human rights activist Billy Mayaya to be transferred to Salima North-West MP Jessie Kabwila (Malawi Congress Party-MCP) without acknowledging that the first one was irregular.

In court documents seen by The Nation as filed on their behalf by lawyers GD Liwimbi and Partners, the UDF MPs claim that the Speaker should not have accepted Mayaya’s petition in the first place.

They say, instead, the Speaker should have invoked Standing Order 207 (4) asking the MPs to respond to the allegations when it was irregular.

“The first respondent [the Speaker] acted illegally, ultra vires and outside the scope of his lawful authority, unreasonably and without impartiality when following the applicants response to Mr Billy Mayaya’s petition, he [ the Speaker] allowed him [Mayaya] to correct the irregularity instead of dismissing the petition,” argues private practive lawyer Gabriel Chembezi in his skeletal arguments on behalf of the MPs.

“The first respondent has failed to exercise his powers as Speaker of the National Assembly lawfully, constitutionally and reasonably by his lack of impartiality in the handling of the petition.”

The UDF MPs claim that the Speaker and acting Clerk of Parliament (CoP) Roosevelt Gondwe acted illegally and without impartiality as they violated the provisions of Standing Orders by accepting Mayaya’s petition as he is not an MP.

The MPs want the court to order the Speaker not to demand that the MPs respond to Mayaya’s petition within seven days because the action is illegal.

In the judicial review, the MPs also want the court to quash decisions and actions by the Speaker and acting CoP.

Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs senior State advocate Apoche Itimu confirmed in an interview yesterday that the UDF MPs’ lawyers served them with the application on Friday afternoon.

Itimu, who is also the spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, said they were yet to respond.

In a related development, Mayaya has also not given up on his quest and has joined the case as a friend of the court, challenging the stay order which prevented the Speaker from proceeding with the Section 65 procedures as outlined in the Standing Orders.

The Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal will this Tuesday hear the application to discharge the order which it granted because the UDF MPs did not disclose they had responded to the seven-day ultimatum and accepted the procedure to continue.

“In the circumstances, the order of the Speaker was incapable of being stayed as it had already been complied with,” said Mayaya through his lawyers, Golden & Law.

Eleven of UDF’s 14 MPs moved to the government benches in Parliament to cement the working relationship between their party and the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). President Peter Mutharika roped into his Cabinet UDF president and Machinga North East MP Atupele Muluzi.

UDF MPs not affected by the move are Muluzi, Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament Clement Chiwaya and former leader of UDF in Parliament Lucius Banda.

Following the relocation of the 11 to the government side, UDF was also booted out of the influential Business Committee which is made up of party leaders and formulates the agenda of the National Assembly.

Several high-profile legal scholars as well as the Malawi Law Society (MLS) and the Attorney General’s office have given different opinions on whether UDF MPs have crossed the floor.