Tag Archives: Malawi Law Commission

Law and order

Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal Act review commences

Maravi Post Reporter

The Special Law Commission on the review of the Supreme Court of Appeal Act on Monday started preliminary consultative meetings on the review of the Act with a call for involved stakeholders to positively contribute on the same.

The review process aims at aligning the 1964 Act with the 1994 Constitution of Malawi. This comes against the background of the possibility of disparities, inconsistencies or gaps between the two since the Supreme Court of Appeal Act predates the Constitution.

On the day, the Law Commission engaged the Judiciary and the Malawi Law Society to solicit their inputs towards the review.

In an interview, Chairperson for the Special Law Commission, Edward Twea S.C said one of the issues to be addressed in the review is on the Supreme Court of Appeal being the last court.

“Malawians now have the right of appeal to the SADC court in Namibia or COMESA court in Lusaka and a human rights court in Addis Ababa; those were not provided for in our courts as the constitution says the final court is the Supreme Court of Appeal.

“But there are issues that it is not final as there are cases that can go to other courts within the region, that is why we are looking at the Act again,” he explained.

He further said the review, which is expected to end between May and June next year (2019), will also look at providing timely and equal access to the courts to all Malawians despite the social status.

Twea added that the consultations will also be extended to the general public for their input on particular issues and further consultations will be done throughout the regions so as to hear from a wider population.

The findings will then be forwarded to the Ministry of Justice which will take them to the cabinet before being taken into Parliament.

On this, Twea said it was imperative for stakeholders to be participating in the meetings.

“There is need for people to be gracing these meetings because the participation today is not that good and at the end of the day, people will say they were not consulted when the issue is taken to Parliament,” said Twea.

In his remarks, president of the Malawi Law Society said the review process is an opportunity for law practitioners in the country to recommend what as lawyers would like to be in the Act.

“We are here to take out issues, observe that what we think should be within the law so that the practice is smooth for us because there are some things we lawyers would have wanted to be in the Act but might not be there.

“It was important for us to be here because we do not want somebody to make a law and then we later come in and start complaining,” he said.

Malawi, Politics

Road to 2019 elections: Malawi Law Commission endorses 50+1 electoral system

Patience Mandowa
Malawi Elections
Law Commission endorses 50+ 1 system

LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The Malawi Law Commission (MLC) on Monday, endorsed the 50+1 system for electing the Head of State and Government.

The Commission’s endorsement comes barely three months after the Special Law Commission on the review report of Electoral Law, recommends drastic changes to how general elections should be handled. The recommendation is a sharp departure from the 1994 First-Past-the-Post” (FPTP) provision. The 50+1 system advances that for electing Presidents, a candidate to be declared the winner, he or she must acquire 50+1 percent of the total votes cast.

Chairperson of the Special Law Commission Justice Anthony Kamanga, said that Parliament will amend Section 80 (2) of the Constitution and Section 96 (5) of the Parliamentary and Presidential Elections (PPE) Act; this would effect the necessary changes of the electoral system from the current simple majority to the 50 plus one percent electoral model.

Kamanga said the Special Commission unanimously agreed with the 50 percent plus 1 system, and that the possibility of a second round of voting where the first round fails to produce a clear candidate, a run-off would be an ideal option.

He added that where no majority is obtained by any presidential candidate in the first poll, a run-off would be held, in which two presidential candidates who obtained the two higher number of valid votes cast, would be the only eligible candidates in the run-off.

In its final report the Special Law Commission, reviewed the present clause that allows the election of the president through “first-past-the post” mode, is embroiled with challenges regarding the legitimacy of the winner who sometimes gets less than 50% of the total votes cast.

The Commission also recommends that there should be the minimum educational qualifications clause for persons seeking elective office; the current law does not provide this type of yardstick; it only requires a candidate read and speak English, and be 35 years in age for the presidential election category.

President Peter Mutharika
Mutharika

The report recommends that presidential candidates and their running mates should possess at minimum, a first degree or its equivalent from a recognized or accredited tertiary institution.

The Special Law Commission also proposed that for candidates desiring to participate in Parliamentary and local councils elections, a Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) is a requisite qualifying level; and candidates should be able to comfortably read and speak in English.

The report further proposes special parliamentary seats for women in each district in the country. This provision is to ensure that women occupy a certain minimum number of seats in the National Assembly.

The Special Commission also recommends that a 30-day transition period after the election should be observed before the next President and Vice President, are sworn in after the elections.

Lastly, the Special Law Commission, consolidate and harmonize all electoral laws to ensure that they speak the same language. To this end, the Special Commission introduced six bills that include the Constitution (Amendment), the Electoral Commission (Amendment), the Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Elections, the Elections Management Fund, and the Assumption of the Office of President of Referendum.

Since 1994 the FPTP electoral system has been used for the selection of the country’s President, Members of Parliament (MPs) and ward councilors.

Under these rules, the candidate on the ballot who gets the most votes has been duly elected.

Malawi

Pension scam at Malawi Law Commission: Solicitor General Banda benefited, AG Kamphasa demands refunding

Maravi Post correspondent

LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Corruption appears to be the order of the day in the Peter Mutharika-led Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government as some officers at the Malawi Law Commission (MLC) are said to have given themselves two retirement packages contrary to the civil service regulations and procedures, The Maravi Post understands.

Dr Janet Banda: received retirement package at Malawi Law Commission twice

This comes after government in 2009 directed that employees at the commission be on contributory pension scheme.

The development at the Commission saw employees retire first before adopting the new pension scheme thereby getting two retirement packages in the end.

The documents in our possession reveal that other former and current employees received double retirement packages namely Solicitor General Janet Banda, (former Chief Law Reform Officer), Commission’s  Controller of Human Resources Management Dina Migochi, Principal HMR officer Steven Mijoni, Chief Accountant Patricia Mwathengere, Senior Personal Secretary Tabu Moleni, former director of administrations Lovemore Winga.

For instance Migochi pocketed MK86, 455.85 gratuity dated May 16, 2001 for the period 10/11/86 to 23/06/99 meaning that she joined the service on November 10, 1986 and retired on June 23, 1999 as started working with the commission.

The latter’s voucher shows that she has worked for 22 years instead of 13 years and received MK23, 266, 710.00. Migochi is said to have been paid cheque number 315785 and voucher number 030PV4008430.

Solicitor General Banda got MK18, 488, 547.50 through cheque number315776 for the period 1993 to 2009, meaning that the period from 1993 to about 2000 when she retired first is also included.

Mijoni received MK19, 775, 345.74 net through cheque number 315800 for the period to September 2009 meaning that the period from 1980 to 1999 was included.

Mwathengere pocketed MK21, 434, 509.40 through cheque number 315833 for the period between 1982 to September 2009, meaning that she included the period she got already paid from 1992 to 2009.

Moleni received MK10, 381, 186.16 through cheque number 315756 for the period 1992 to 2009 while Winga who left the commission got MK16, 975, 221.25 for the period 1993 to 2009.

Migochi who is one of the beneficiaries in the pension scam told the Malawi News that the matter in question was in court seeking legal intervention adding that he would not comment further.

She however conceded the anomaly arguing that many employees were affected and that the matter was to be resolved by the Accountant General.

Meanwhile Auditor General Stephenson Kamphasa described what happened at the commission as wrong and warned the employees to refund the money.

Kamphasa: asks  for refund

Kamphasa disclosed that his office will be going to the commission for audit hinting that it was un-procedural for a civil servant to get two pensions from the civil service.

The double pension packages scam at the Malawi Law Commission comes barely days after double allowances were given to officials at Mzuzu City Council which saw a whopping MK1.5 million go down the drain. In as much as Malawi civil servants are generally corrupt, corruption seems to get worse by the day in the Peter Mutharika-led DPP government owing to the fact that Mutharika shields corrupt political cronies in his government and public bodies from prosecution.