Members of Parliament have passed a motion to set June 23 as date for the Fresh Presidential Elections.
When the proceedings started today, Chairperson of the Legal Affairs Committee Kezzie Msukwa asked the House to waive the order paper in order to discuss the date for the elections.
Member of Parliament for Mzimba North Yeremiah Chihana then moved the motion on the election date and other opposition legislators seconded it.
The goverment side refused to be part and parcel of the process and insisted that the House should discuss the day’s order paper but the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament Madalitso Kazombo allowed the issue to be discussed and the motion was passed.
Speaking with the press, Leader of Opposition in the House Lobin Lowe said today being a day for government business, they had to use relevant standing order 2011 which allows them to suspend all goverment business to allow any member to bring an important issue.
Lowe added that the opposition’s priority is the election as a way of trying to obey the court rulling that the Parliament should set a date for the elections within 150 days.
“We asked goverment to bring electoral bills and they promised to bring them today that is after rejecting our private members bill and unfortunately today there is no bill as such we use the resolution route to move the motion,” he explained
He then said that although the goverment side is disgreeing with the motion Malawi Parliament has agreed that 23 June is the date for fresh elections since the motion has been passed and there is no way they can reverse it.
On his part, Leader of the House Kondwani Nankhumwa said what happened today is unfortunate because the opposition side brought the issue which was not in the order paper.
Nankhumwa said that the members of the opposition have ironically passed the motion after ambushing government which was uncalled for and led to early adjournment of the House.
