This post discusses the national Assembly of Malawi starting from the history of the Assembly to the constitutional framework and the current parliament.
HISTORY OF THE MALAWI PARLIAMENT
Malawi parliament was first based in Zomba the former capital City of the Country. The parliament housing moved to Lilongwe in 1994 where it was housed at the new state house before the independent parliament building was completed in and handed over for in 20 May 2010.
CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK
Malawi is a multiparty republic. Malawi’s original constitution of 1966 was replaced with a provisional constitution in 1994, which was officially promulgated in 1995 and has since been amended. It provides for a president, who is limited to serving no more than two five-year terms, and up to two vice presidents, all of whom are elected by universal suffrage. The president serves as head of state and government. The cabinet is appointed by the president. The legislature, the National Assembly, is unicameral; its members also are elected by universal suffrage and serve five-year terms. The 1995 constitution also provided for the creation of an upper legislative chamber, but it was not established by the target completion date in 1999; a proposal to cancel plans for the creation of such a chamber was passed by the National Assembly in 2001.
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
The National Assembly of Malawi is the supreme legislative body of the nation. It is situated on Capitol Hill, Lilongwe along Presidential Way. The National Assembly alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in Malawi. At its head is the Speaker of the House who is elected by his or her peers. Since June 19, 2019 the Speaker is Catherine Gotani Hara.
The 1994 Constitution provided for a Senate but Parliament repealed it. Malawi therefore has a unicameral legislature in practice. The National Assembly has 193 Members of Parliament (MPs) who are directly elected in single-member constituencies using the simple majority (or first-past-the-post) system and serve five-year terms.
According to the Constitution members of the political party whose president wins the Presidential elections automatically sits on the government side of the house. The government side bring the government business. Currently the Government side comprise of members of The Malawi Congress party, UTM, peoples Party and other parties in the Tonse Alliance who have seats.
CURRENT PARLIAMENT
The current parliament was inaugurated in June 2019 after the 2019 Malawian general election. No party managed to secure a majority in the house. Peter Mutharika won the presidential election, however, due to irregularities the constitutional court ordered a re-run of the presidential elections in 2020.[5] Parliament passed the Parliamentary and Presidential Elections Act (PPEA) Amendment Bill on 24 February 2020, extended the terms of MPs and local councilors by one year to allow for harmonized presidential, parliamentary and local elections in 2025.
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH
The National Assembly has 193 members, elected for a five-year term in single-seat constituencies. The constitution also originally provided for a second house, a Senate of 80 seats, but to date no action has been taken to create the Senate, and the provisions allowing for its creation were deleted in 2001. The Senate is intended to provide representation for traditional leaders and the different geographical districts, as well as various special interest groups, such as women, youth, and the disabled.