LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The country’s civil rights group under the banner, National Advocacy Platform (NAP) has described the Legal Affairs Committee’s recommendation as not only ill-conceived but a blatant assault on the Constitution.
NAP chairperson Benedicto Kondowe observes that retaining Members of Parliament (MPs) in the governance and approval of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) constitutes a clear overreach into executive and local government functions.
Kondowe emphasised that approval, administration, and implementation of public funds are not legislative mandates.
Granting MPs these roles, he added, violates the doctrine of separation of powers and attempts to resurrect what the High Court already struck down in Constitutional Case No. 3 of 2023.
He further warned that downplaying the professional advice of the Ministry of Justice only compounds this constitutional delinquency.
According to Kondowe, such disregard is not merely a betrayal of the electorate’s trust. It is a gross manifestation of legislative greed.
It also represents a deliberate attempt by MPs to bend, distort, and ultimately violate the Constitution for their own expedience.
He argued that such conduct reflects an alarming disregard for constitutionalism and the rule of law.
When lawmakers subordinate clear legal guidance to personal or political interest, Kondowe said, they cease to act as guardians of the Constitution. Instead, the Constitution—Malawi’s supreme arbiter and ultimate source of law—becomes reduced to a mere policy document. Parliamentarians, in turn, become active participants in its erosion.
Kondowe stressed that this recommendation effectively collapses the boundary between oversight and execution.
It places MPs at the centre of administrative functions they are duty-bound to scrutinise.
He warned that this invites conflicts of interest, politicisation, and unchecked discretion over K5 billion per constituency.
Such outcomes, he said, are fundamentally incompatible with constitutional governance, decentralisation, and established regional best practice.
Kondowe concluded by affirming that civil society and its constituency of the willing firmly oppose this unconstitutional trajectory.
He emphasised that they stand fully prepared to mount a legal challenge should Parliament proceed with the recommendation.
Kondowe also noted that Malawi’s long-abandoned recall provision—which once empowered citizens to remove non-performing MPs—must urgently be reintroduced into the Constitution. Without a mechanism to withdraw legislators who prioritise personal gain over public duty, he warned, impunity thrives.
He said MPs who openly champion self-interest at the expense of their constituents become a burden to the nation, and citizens should have the constitutional power to recall them.
Malawi, he insisted, deserves a CDF framework anchored in the rule of law, not one distorted for political convenience. He urged Malawians across all walks of life to demand accountability and defend the representative role of their Members of Parliament.
