There was drama at Parliament Friday as President Lazarus Chakwera opened the 2024- 2025 budget meeting with his State of the Nation Address.
For the first time in its history, Parliament opened with two leaders of opposition in the chamber.
The first leader is Kondwani Nankhumwa whom Parliament recognizes while the other is Mary Navicha whom the party Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) recognizes.
Nankhumwa who is also Member of Parliament for Mulanje Central had a seat reserved for him as Leader of Opposition before the speaker stepped in.
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The seat had a name tag indicating Nankhumwa as Leader of Opposition.
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But when Navicha walked into the house, Parliament secretariat removed Nankhumwa’s name tag and replaced it with Navicha’s. Before this action, it just had Thyolo Thava constituency attached to Navicha’s tag.
Few minutes later, the secretariat removed all the DPP name tags.
When they returned, Navicha’s tag had ‘Leader of Opposition’ attached to her name.
Navicha was made to sit where Leader of Opposition normally sits in the House while Nankhumwa was told to sit on the independent bench.
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However, he was sitting in the middle between UDF leader in the House Ned Poya and Aford’s sole Member of Parliament Yeremiah Chihana.
At this time, DPP members of Parliament were guarding the opposition leader’s seat making sure that Nankhumwa does not step any near to the seat.
There was noise at the time both entered the chamber.
MPs from both sides of the House could be seen going to greet Navicha while others went to greet Nankhumwa who both had accepted their seats.
When Speaker of Parliament Catherine Gotani Hara entered the House, she addressed the matter in her communication.
Hara said in accordance with Standing Order 35(1), a Leader of Opposition is elected by a party which is not in government and which has the greatest numerical strength in the National Assembly.
“Further, in accordance with Standing Order 36, a Leader of Opposition can only be removed by the party that elected him or her.
“Currently, the DPP is the party not in government which has the greatest numerical strength and is therefore entitled to elect a Leader of Opposition.
“In this regard, the communication from the DPP concerning election of Honourable George Chaponda and subsequently Honourable Mary Navicha are both procedurally in order.
“This is especially so since as per the DPP, Honourable Nankhumwa is no longer a member of that party and cannot therefore be elected as Leader of Opposition on a DPP ticket,” Hara said.
She, however, said the National Assembly has been brought to the attention of an injunction which has Chaponda as first defendant being restrained from acting or holding out as Leader of Opposition in or outside Malawi Parliament and the DPP also being restrained from implementing its decision of electing Chaponda as Leader of Opposition for Malawi Parliament.
She added that the National Assembly was advised by the office of the Attorney General that due to the Court Order, Chaponda cannot be recognized as Leader of Opposition by the National Assembly.
“Additionally, the National Assembly was further advised by the Office of the Attorney General that it cannot similarly recognize Honourable Navicha as Leader of Opposition.
“It is the Attorney General’s opinion that the status quo, as per the Court Order, can only be maintained if Honorable Nankhumwa is Leader of Opposition.
“In this regard, while the communication from DPP electing Chaponda and subsequently Navicha is valid and is in order, the National Assembly finds its hands tied due to the operation of these Court Orders.
“Further, I must state that although Nankhumwa is the current Leader of Opposition due to operation of a Court Order, he is not a member of the DPP as per the communication received from the DPP and in accordance with the wishes of the DPP, Nankhumwa cannot be seated with the DPP and has therefore been allocated a seat elsewhere,” Hara said.
The House has, however, confirmed Chaponda as the new DPP Chief Whip and Jappie Mhango as the new DPP Deputy Whip as requested by the party.
When President Lazarus Chakwera started delivering his Sona, he failed to mention the Leader of Opposition’s name.
“Honourable Leader of Opposition…”. Then he stopped for some seconds before skipping the name part.
As it stands, Nankhumwa is in his Leader of Opposition’s office as recognized by the House while Navicha sits on the Leader of Opposition’s seat in Parliament as recognized by the Party.
At the moment, Navicha feels she will be the one to respond to the State of the Nation Address as Leader of Opposition next week while Nankhumwa also feels he will be the one to respond.
So, asked for her immediate comment to Chakwera’s address, Navicha described it “as an empty Sona, full of the same lies we were told in the previous Sonas.”
“This is just my immediate reaction, I will comment much when responding to the Sona next week,” Navicha said.
Nankhumwa refused to comment on the happenings but said: “Mwalankhula ndi a Leader of Opposition enawo akuti chani? I will not comment on anything.”
Nankhumwa who was expelled from the party took a picture with Chakwera after the opening while Navicha and all DPP members did not.
At the time, DPP members were still in the chamber deliberating on how to deal with Nankhumwa.
High Court Judge Simeon Mdeza has since set February 13 as a day he will hear both parties in an injunction stopping Chaponda from being leader of opposition and making Nankhumwa to continue being leader.
