ANB-BIA SUPPLEMENT

Reports of Members of Parliament being kidnapped — punch-ups in the House — attempted assaults on Mr Speaker — 
just what was happening in Malawi’s parliament?

Opposition Members of Parliament (MP)s and those sitting on the government benches nearly had a stand-up fight after the 193-member House failed to vote on a Bill that seeks to amend the Constitution of the country, allowing the incumbent President to stand for a third term. The Constitution restricts the tenure of office to two terms.

A hastily convened Parliament, which was called to sit for two days (27-28 January 2003) in Lilongwe to debate the Third Term Bill that has been hanging in limbo since last year, failed to arrive at any definite vote. Attorney-General Henry Phoya, who is also Minister of Justice, announced in Parliament that the Bill will be sent to the Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament to scrutinize it and spell the way forward. The Bill aims at amending Section 83 Subsection 3 of the Constitution.

Political analysts say this was just a ploy by the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) after it became apparent to them that the Bill would not pass. A similar Bill was defeated last year on 4 July, and the President conceded defeat only to have it back on the parliamentary agenda a few months later.

Tensions were high, prior to the sitting of Parliament. Firstly, contrary to usual practice, Parliament was called without the MPs being informed which subjects were on the agenda. Secondly, 48 hours before the sitting of Parliament, newspaper reports indicated that senior UDF officials were busy «buying» MPs to vote for the Bill in order to get two-thirds of the votes for amending the Constitution.

Twenty-four hours later, the Church and civil society organized interdenominational prayers to ask God to intervene and defeat the Third Term Bill altogether. Following the prayers, the Churches called on people to demonstrate so as to register their anger against attempts to amend the Constitution.

Mass action

Thousands of Malawians took to the streets on 27 January in Lilongwe, Blantyre, Mzuzu and Zomba, to protest against the re-introduction of the Bill in Parliament. They were, however, dispersed by the Police, apparently on orders from above. However, the Forum for the Defense of the Constitution (FDC) which organized the demonstrations in Blantyre, obtained an injunction from the High Court to stop the police from disrupting the demonstrations.

While the demonstrations were in progress, rumours were circulating that UDF officials had «bought» 14 MPs from the main Opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) in a bid to entice them to vote for the Bill. So as to ensure the MCP MPs in question would abide by their promise, the UDF party decided to detain them in order to ensure they complied with the agreement. At least that’s what Brown Mpinganjira, a former cabinet minister said. He’s now a critic of Muluzi and leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a pressure group which has yet to evolve into a political party.

Five of the abducted MPs managed to escape and reported what had happened to their party chairman, Gwanda Chakuamba. Chakumba reported the same to Parliament’s Speaker, Sam Mpasu.

Chaos in UDF ranks

While all this was going on, the UDF held a caucus to discuss the way forward after realizing that numbers were against them. It appears that tempers flared during the caucus, with most UDF MPs and cabinet ministers asking Muluzi to withdraw the Bill. Those who were for the Bill, threatened to deal with those against. One such victim of the chaos is Minister of Trade, Commerce and Industry Peter Kaleso who has since been dropped from the Cabinet.

Aftermath of the deferred Bill

When Speaker Sam Mpasu announced that there would be no voting, all hell broke out in the House. One opposition MP from the Aford party, Greene Mwamondwe, irked that the Speaker did not heed the Opposition’s call for a vote, wanted to physically manhandle him. The Speaker had to be rescued by Parliament’s Sergeant-at-arms. The fact is, there was nearly a punch-up among Parliamentarians with Members wanting to «sort each other out» because they could not agree on the vote.

There’s little chance the Bill will ever be taken back to Parliament. The fact that the UDF did manage to get voting deferred, shows that party knows the Bill is very unpopular, and political analysts view the excuse of taking the Bill to the legal committee as a mere face-saver. The Attorney-General is non-committal as to whether the Bill will ever appear in Parliament. He only says that since the Bill has been introduced in Parliament and has been referred to the legal committee, it will still run its course. «It’s up to the committee to advise the government the way forward».

But with the current fierce opposition from the Church, civil society and the parliamentary Opposition, it would seem the Bill is a non-starter.

• Frank Jomo, Malawi, January 2003 — © Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment