The fundamental principle of separation of powers in Malawi faces a severe test following President Peter Mutharika\u2019s executive order to postpone a scheduled parliamentary sitting, a move legal experts warn strikes directly at democratic accountability.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The National Assembly was set to convene for a critical midterm budget review to scrutinise public expenditure as the country battles acute fuel shortages and economic distress.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, President Mutharika cited Section 59(1) of the Constitution to defer the session, arguing that state funds allocated for parliament should be redirected toward urgent national priorities, including El Ni\u00f1o disaster preparedness.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
While Attorney General Frank Mbeta maintained the directive was lawful and Speaker of Parliament Sameer Suleman confirmed compliance, the Malawi Law Society has fiercely contested the Mutharika\u2019s constitutional authority.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Davis Njobvu, President of the Malawi Law Society, stressed that executive orders cannot bypass statutory parliamentary functions:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“The President cites Section 59(1) of the Constitution of Malawi, but there is no power granted to the President to direct the Speaker to postpone a sitting.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The only power the President holds is to summon or prorogue the National Assembly in direct consultation with the speaker.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This was an already gazetted sitting meant for a midterm budget review, and a unilateral postponement deprives citizens of the opportunity to hold government departments and ministries accountable for public spending during a time of serious economic hardship.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Njobvu further warned that public actions of this nature remain subject to judicial review, cautioning that allowing the executive to unilaterally dictate legislative schedules sets a dangerous precedent for constitutional governance and oversight in Malawi.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":31712,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-50070","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Postponement of National Assembly session sparks rule of law concerns across Malawi","published_date":"2026-11-05 13:12:05","news_description":"Postponement of National Assembly session sparks rule of law concerns across Malawi","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/50070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/50070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50072,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/50070\/revisions\/50072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=50070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}