Over 60 seats of Members of Parliament , mostly from the government’s side are expected to be declared vacant when Parliament meets on June 29 this year, it has been learned.
This is in response to the ruling of the Supreme Court of Malawi which ruled that Members of Parliament (MPS) who defect from the parties that supported them to Parliament crossed the floor.
The State President in November last year asked the court to rule that section 65, which states that a Member of Parliament who defects from his party which sponsored him or her crosses the floor, is unconstitutional and inconsistent with other laws.
Reading the ruling on Friday in the commercial city of Blantyre, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Malawi Justice Unyolo said the judiciary does not have powers to invalidate the constitution but to interpret, protect and enforce laws in accordance with the constitution.
The ruling affects over 60 Members of Parliament who defected to President Dr. Bingu WA Mutharika’s Party ,the Democratic Progressive Party, after he resigned from United Democratic Front, the party that sponsored him into government.
Speaker of Parliament Louis Chimango is expected to declare vacant the seats of Members of Parliament who joined Dr. Bingu Wa Mutharika’s government as well as those MPS who defected from their parties to the opposition.
However, the Secretary General of Democratic Progessive Party(DPP) Dr. Hetherwick Ntaba said he is not worried about the by-elections saying they will will all the seats .
If 60 MPS lose their seats the government will have less than 20 MPS in the 193 Parliament.