Parliament wants law to force President appear in the house

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Malawi Parliament Peter Mutharika

Members of Parliament (MPs) in Malawi are to set to make it mandatory for the president to appear before the House.

The reform will be implemented after the MPs review Parliament’s standing orders.

Malawi Parliament Peter Mutharika
Parliament to discuss President’s forced parliament appearance.

The new standing orders are to among others make it compulsory for presidents to appear before the house for questioning.

Confirming the development, chairperson of the legal affairs committee of Parliament Maxwell Thyolera said the new standing orders are also set to trim the number of parliamentary committees from 20 to 13.

“The other issue is of leader of opposition, the current standing orders just give a definition but about the roles and responsibilities it is not there, this time around we have included that.

“And also to maximize the sittings, we have resolved that we should be having full time on Wednesdays,” said Thyolera.

The house is set to discuss the recommendations by the committee on Wednesday this week.

The current standing orders for Malawi Parliament were adopted in the year 2013.

President Peter Mutharika has previously been blamed for snubbing calls to appear before the house to answer questions from the members of the house.