Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
Post Info TOPIC: powe struggle in malawi


Newbie

Status: Offline
Posts: 33
Date:
powe struggle in malawi
Permalink Closed


The United Democratic Front (UDF) Party is set to impeach the current President Dr Bingu Wa Mutharika, in parliament on the basis of violating the country’s constitution.

The Party claims that it has identified six serious violations on the country’s constitution, which could lead to Mutharika's downfall.

According to Local Media reports there are indications that six constitutional violations have been identified and are ready to be tabled in the house on March 30, 2005.

The violations are (1) the withdrawal of K1 billion from the consolidated funds loan facility for the Malawi Rural development fund (2) the appointment of chief secretary of civil service, a position which does not exist in the act of government civil service, (3) the removal of former Inspector General of Police Joseph Aironi without the approval of the Malawi Police Services as per requirement (4) sucking of the Director of the Public Prosecutions (DPP) Fahad Assan before his term of office expired (5)the dismissal of 32 principal secretaries and (6) the removal of Army Commander Joseph Chimbayo without the approval of the defence council and the hiring of political ally Ken Zikhale Ng_oma as chief of staff at the state house.

The current underground working relationship that exist between UDF and the main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) poses a great challenge to Mutharika administration in Parliament.

UDF secretary General Kennedy Makwangwala has confirmed the move by his party to impeach the president this week if the opportunity arises.

“We are going a head to impeach the President if we don't succeed we will do it in the next sitting in June, which will be budget session,” Makwangwala was quoted as saying.

A document is said to have been developed by the party outlining the alleged violations of the constitution by Mutharika.

The document, which is said to be entitled “constitutional and political observations since May 2004” is rumoured to have been circulated to donor communities notably the British Government, European Union (EU) and other diplomatic sources. Sam Mpasu a UDF spokesman said the MPs will use the opportunity to move the motion of impeachment after seeing the alleged violations. “The UDF will rally behind the move because they have an obligation to defend the country’s constitutions,” he said.

Over 65 parliamentarians are said to be in agreement with the party.

The success of the move will largely depend on the numbers because the constitution provides two-thirds majority to impeach the president.

If the impeachment succeeds in accordance with the constitution the cabinet would have to elect a stand in president who will then hold office for 60 days until fresh elections are held.

The working relationship between UDF and MCP paid dividend last week when they jointly blocked the confirmation of first Lady Police chief in the country. Again, a number of MPs from the two parties are said to in doubt the success of the impeachment plot.

Attorney General Ralph Kasambara told the National Television station recently that grounds to impeach the president are not valid. “There are not serious cases in which some quarters could claim that the president has violated be country’s constitution in any way,” he said.

The leader of Government business in the House, Yusuf Mwawa who is also Minister of Education was upbeat when quizzed about the issue, “We have numbers and government would emerge the winner at end or the day,” he said.

Garton Kumchedzera University of Malawi, Dean of law lecturer, said “The massive support Mutharika enjoys it because of his anti- corruption drive and this may sport public anger if he was impeachment,”

Power struggle openly surfaced in January this year, when the UDF National executive committee (NEC) was planned to oust Mutharika from the party for not being committed to the party’s ideals.

Later, Mutharika accused his predecessor Muluzi for backing a plot to assassinate and he quit the party and has since found the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has since being registered.

The formation of the new party saw the massive exodus of top high-ranking UDF officials and some UDF mps have declared themselves independent in order to work with the Mutharika administration effectively. UDF asserted to power in the May, 2004 elections.




__________________
ejsteytler


Newbie

Status: Offline
Posts: 27
Date:
Permalink Closed

I heard there is no provision regarding procedure for impeaching the president in our country's constitution. That means that they first have make a constitutional amendment before initiating the whole process of impeachment. I'm afraid that will take a pretty long time and the chances of impeaching him are highly improbable Also the grounds for impeachment are very weak. To me its certainly a sign of desparation for power on the part of UDF
Right now the country needs to focus all its resources towards development in order to raise the standards of living for the masses.
Economically our country is worse off since Multiparty politics was introduced , that means during Muluzi's entire era our country's economic policies were not successful in elavating the stds of living for the common individual living in the village .
Muluzi had no economic vision of where he wanted to lead our country towards and the mess in terms of corruption within the top brass will continue to impede our country's economic development for the next couple of years to come.
I think Bingu on the economic front he is doing a great job at least he has the vision of how to bring about economic progress. For instance, he has set up measures to control the currency fluctuations, by establishing the monetary band in which the currency is allowed to fluctuate within, in order to contain rapid currency fluctuations, which leads to inflation.
All in all i believe Bingu's Economic (not political) policies are way better and i expect progress to follow in the long run
Woza477


__________________
Page 1 of 1  sorted by
 
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.

Tweet this page Post to Digg Post to Del.icio.us


Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse
Powered by ActiveBoard