Pressure mounting on Malawi Government to trim constituencies to 100

Nov 26, 2015 Politics 55
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Malawi Parliament Peter Mutharika

The Malawi Government is receiving calls from Civil Society groupings to consider slicing the number of constituencies from 193 to 100.

The call has been tilted to the current economic woes and misunderstandings that have ensured between Members of Parliament (MPs) and Ward Councillors.

Earlier this week the Citizen Alliance, an umbrella body of several civil society organizations officials held a meeting with the Speaker of the National Assembly, Richard Msowoya together with other leaders in the August House where the organization argued for the reduction.

Executive secretary for Citizen Alliance Wilson Asidu, argued with Msowoya and the others that neighboring Zambia, whose currency has however been falling at a fast pace recently, has 158 members of parliament yet Malawi is five times the size of Zambia.

Peter Mutharika- Parliament.
Parliament being called to get trimmed.

The grouping also cited gave an example of South Africa which has 300 legislators yet the population is higher than that of the rainbow nation.

They also cited an example of the United States of America which has 500 senators yet Malawi is over 30 times the size of America.

Asidu said the huge number of parliamentarians has a huge negative effect on the Malawi economy, saying chopping off the 93 legislators would save Malawi of billions of money needed in the rapidly collapsing public health sector and other critical public sectors now in shambles due to the bad economic situation in the country.

The grouping believes that the trimming will let the ward councillors handle development projects in their respective areas whilst members of parliament just concentrate on law making and oversight functions

Malawi24 has been highly informed that Msowoya trashed the call on the basis that the lawmakers and ward councillors all have various roles.

The Speakers reportedly However, Speaker Richard Msowoya dismissed this idea out rightly, saying councillors and members of parliament do different jobs altogether.

The Malawi parliament has been under heavy criticism for what locals term as ‘useless’ debate in the August House.

Recently, legislators in the house were involved in a stand off after the opposition side did not want to concede defeat on a vote in which every Member of Parliament present in the house participated in.

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55 Comments

  1. Chokani apa zopusazimenezo musise fetereza ndipomwe Malawi uzukasonga nthawi ya kamuzu chifukwa nthawi ya kamuzu njala kunalibe gyz koma sopano eich Malawi uja alikuti mmmmmmm .

  3. This is a very useless call.There were reasons why constituencies were increased Why not call for Senate which our MPs shot down when they were debating. We need Senators not reducing MPs/Constituencies.I rest my case

    1. Its nt useless.,and do u knw hw much the goverment uses 4 those 93 mps..n why is there in the constitution that aspect of ammendment of sme laws…thnk twice bg

  4. There are 100 Senators in the USA two per state.Each state regardless of size has two senators. Malawi is a pathetic country, bloating the number of MPs against a meagre economy. 90% of these MPs do not perform to the required standards, they are noise makers in parliament but bring no development to their constituencys. Bakili Muluzi played a bigger part in bloating this number due to his selfish ambitions. He thought of more power consolidation and yet he was drifting the country into backwardness.

  5. 193 views thus too much I think we can save alot by 48.2 % of the but we can do more than this even making it 96………….law making & budgeting basi ……….193 people more over amaziyimilanso maganizo awo.

  11. Eya ma mp a chepe, kumwera 70, pakati 30, kumpoto 10, ku mmawa 6, kumwera chifukwa kuli anthu ambiri komaso kuli anthu ophunzira ambiri ,angamangokhala.

    1. Thats the thinkng below the average…what z kuphuzla kwambir n hw sure a u dat ku mmwera kul ophunzira kwambiri

  13. Aaaah, ndiye zopusa zimenezo. Reducing constituencies wont help us coz it bring in more problems. Koma anene kuti boma lichepetse manyumba okhalamo a president and his vice. the country will save almost 5 billion kwacha which is spent only on those houses and the money can be channeled into the health sector where of late ndikumene kuli mavuto ambiri. Simple as that.

    1. On state Houses, I agree with you but not on members of parliament. So far it has proved that we pay our members of parliament for sleeping and playing in parliament

    2. exactly, they dont even offer solutions to the govt. on the problems we are facing all they want is allowances, salaries and petrol. greedy and selfish politicians.

  14. Komadi,achuluka,pakhale north,south,east,west and centre, not north east or south east constuency, koma ngati amalephera kadera kawo kakang’ono,akaphatikiza akwanitsa?thats malawi i know.,

  15. Komadi,achuluka,pakhale north,south,east,west and centre, not north east or south east constuency, koma ngati amalephera kadera kawo kakang’ono,akaphatikiza akwanitsa?thats malawi i know.,

  20. I 100% support this idea. Parliament is consuming alot of resources for development through their meetings and bloated committees. Our economy is failing to meet their hefty demands on salaries, gratuities and allowances and yet the poor are struggling.

  21. Zambia has 150 MPs,but it is three times bigger than Malawi.Most of the MPs don’t contribute anything .The government spend a lot of money to end poverty of few at the expense of the poor.The duty of MPs is to make laws you don’t need all these MPs to make laws .If we talk of development it is the responsibility of Councillors. Thanks.

  24. Koma ndiye zafika povuta tingoti chilera chalowa kuma consituency sopano? kenako tichepeseso 1, mafumu 2,makasalala etc ndiye kuma MP bill musanga musanga

  37. That’s a very good idea. It is quiet amazing to see as small as Malawi both in size and population to have such improper big number of constituencies. Some even can’t qualify to be a ward in other countries. So whaats the reasons of having close to 200 MPs whose duties can be managed by 90 to 100 MPs? Am fully supporting this idea atleast if each district can have 4 constituencies and cities to have 1 each. If this can be implemented Malawi can serve billions of kwachas and the jobs for ward counselors can be clearly drawn

  44. Its true that the number should be down sized to 100 mps,because to be honest and frankly speaking ,I for one don’t see the reason why should we have such magnificent and band of hands clapping mps. I support the motion.

  45. Do u think it will be proper to have 2/3 constuencies in large districts like Mzimba, Lilongwe, Mangochi, Kasungu ndi enawa? Kaya inunso simukudziwa eti,,, tiuzeni zoona mumalankhulira ndani inu, agogo anu kapena?

  46. usa doesn’t have 500 senators. we expect you to research/check the facts before publishing

  47. author, re-write the comparisons between SA, USA, ZA and MW.

  48. I support the move.we can even reduce them further to 2 or 3 per district(depending on population/size), i feel this is what the economy ca support and we can be represented just as good!!

  49. thats true, look at Balaka and Machinga,Mulanje and Phalombe,Mwanza and NenoNkhatabay and Likoma, Thyolo and Chiradzulu

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