National demonstrations on December 13
The Public Affairs Committee (Pac) has set December 13 as the day for national protests against government’s reluctance to table the Electoral Reforms Bills in the current meeting of Parliament.
“The board has also agreed to send messages to our religious communities to mobilise and prepare them for this march… We have decided to go ahead with the march because we feel the government has breached the promise [it made to Malawians] and it is not committed to tabling these bills,” Pac Publicity Secretary, Father Peter Mulomole, said after Pac’s Board met in Blantyre yesterday.
The Electoral Reforms Bills, among others, seek the amendment of Section 80 (2) of the Constitution and Section 96 (5) of the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections Act proposing 50+1 percent electoral system other than the current simple majority as well as Section 81(3) which will constitute that elected president and vice president should be sworn in 30 days after election results.
“Minister of Justice [Samuel Tembenu] came out publicly and promised that the bills would be tabled in November but they have not kept their word; hence, the need to show our dissatisfaction,” Mulomole said.
Mulomole said the Pac Board has authorised the secretariat to start preparations by writing city assemblies to notify them of the impending march.
Thursday last week, Pac petitioned President Peter Mutharika and the Speaker of Parliament, asking them to be diligent in ensuring that the bills are tabled in Parliament as promised.
The decision to hold demonstrations comes a day after the Malawi Electoral Support Network and 16 other civil society organisations issued a statement asking the government to live by its word and take the bills to Parliament for debate during the current meeting.
Some of the groupings that attended the meeting yesterday include Episcopal Conference of Malawi, Muslim Association of Malawi, Quadria Muslim Association of Malawi, Evangelical Association of Malawi and Malawi Council of Churches.
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