Parliament was Thursday morning suspended for over two hours after the audio recording system in the chamber developed a fault.
Deputy Speaker of the House Madalitso Kazombo had to suspend deliberations at around 10:25am as the recording system could not capture what was being discussed in the chamber.
According to Kazombo, Parliament is a House of records and that the fault affected the capturing of records for the Parliamentary official publication, the Hansard.
And, in a statement, Parliament spokesperson Ian Mwenye confirmed that the suspension was due to a faulty audio system.
“Parliament of Malawi wishes to inform its stakeholders and the general public that the House experienced a technical challenge with its audio system in the chamber, which led to the suspension of business of the House this morning.
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“This was caused by a faulty audio port in the conferencing system. The problem has since been rectified and the House will resume sitting at 2:00 pm,” Mwenye said.
During the time the House was suspended, some opposition lawmakers started alleging that Malawi Congress Party members had connived with the House to halt proceedings to allow them to cast their votes at the party’s headquarters, where they were electing a new regional chairperson for women for the Central Region.
The development did not go down well with Leader of the House Richard Chimwendo Banda, who expressed anger at the allegations.
Chimwendo Banda said he had requested the Office of the Speaker of Parliament to reprimand members who were making the “false allegations”.
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He said even when the President is holding meetings at the nearby Bingu International Convention Centre, the House does not stop meeting.
