The National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Trust says it is concerned with reports that some Members of Parliament (MPs) hardly ever hold pre-parliament meetings in their constituencies in preparation for parliamentary sittings.
Zomba Nice civic education officer Albertina Nsongolo expressed the concern at Group Village Head (GVH) Chaweza headquarters in the district during an interface meeting aimed to empower communities to claim various socio-economic developments from their duty bearers.
Nsongolo said her office embarked on a mission to observe from the communities on developments they have received from their duty bearers since they rose to power on May 20 2014 as well as empower them (communities) to own various developments.
However, she said she was saddened to learn that in some areas MPs have never visited their subjects since they rose to power in the 2014 tripartite elections.
According to Nsongolo, the failure of MPs to interact with their people is an abuse and infringement of Section 30 of the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi which stipulates that every citizen has right to development.
She said pre-parliament consultation meetings assist the legislatures to know the needs of the people and find ways on how to table the peoples’ requests in the august house.
“If MPs fail to consult their constituents what matters are they going to represent for their people in the chamber?” she asked.
One of the MPs, Peter Mangulenje of Zomba-Chisi, confessed that he did not conduct any consultation meetings with his constituents because he knows the problems that affect his area.
“There was no need to hold such meetings since there was nothing new I would have learnt from my constituents apart from the problems I already know,” he said.
However, Nice advised the MPs to still consult their voters as they know all the problems affecting people in their areas.
