Bingu must address crises—Opposition

Main opposition parties UDF and MCP want Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika to personally present solutions to crises affecting the country when Parliament opens for a new session on Friday.

In separate interviews on Wednesday, leader of United Democratic Front (UDF) in Parliament Ibrahim Matola and Malawi Congress Party (MCP) spokesperson on Parliamentary Affairs Joseph Njobvuyalema said much has been said about the crises, including the forex and fuel shortages.

They said it is time Mutharika moved towards giving long-term solutions to the problems.

Said Matola: “Government is said to have consulted widely and listened to different views. We would now like to hear long-term solutions. We need the head of State to outline the solutions himself when he opens the House on Friday because it seems his ministers have failed.”

According to Matola, UDF expects that when the House starts meeting in earnest on Monday, solutions to the crises should be the main agenda.

Njobvuyalema, who is also MCP chief whip in the House, said his party is interested to hear from President Bingu wa Mutharika how government is going to deal with the crises, notably forex and fuel shortages and economic problems in general.

“Whatever government brings in the House, our priority are solutions to resuscitate the economy. We would want to hear from the President himself how his government intends to handle the situation, especially now that the zero-deficit budget has failed,” he said.

Njobvuyalema said if MCP will not be satisfied with the solutions, it is ready to give its views during the sitting, arguing the party has a lot of suggestions on how some of the issues can be handled.

He said another area of interest are the repressive laws that the President referred to the Malawi Law Commission for review.

During the last sitting of the House, both ministries of Finance and Development Planning and Energy, Mining and Natural Resources made statements on the fuel and forex shortages, outlining short-term, mid-term and long-term strategies.

Leader of the House Dr George Chaponda said the agenda includes reports and statements on different issues from various ministries.

He said the five laws currently with the Law Commission will not be tabled in the current sitting of the House as there is a lot of work to be done on them.

According to Chaponda, the opening of the House will be followed by a week-long debate on the President’s address before the Minister of Finance and Development Planning Dr Ken Lipenga tables a Mid-Term Budget Review on Friday.

He said it will take two weeks for the House to debate the budget review.

The Labour Relations and the Constitutional Amendment bills will also be tabled. The Constitutional Amendment Bill, which seeks to amend the law to allow a tripartite election, was not concluded in the last session and it is a requirement that the process starts all over again.

Chaponda said in between, there will be the usual question time for ministers.