The 2007

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...

an political crisis was started when the Supreme Court of Malawi ruled on 15 June 2007 that the

speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

of the

National Assembly of Malawi The National Assembly of Malawi is the supreme legislative body of the nation. It is situated on Capital Hill, Lilongwe along Presidential Way. The National Assembly alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other ...

Louis Chimango Louis Joseph Chimango (born 19 October 1943) was a long-time cabinet minister in Late Hastings Kamuzu Banda's cabinet from 1978 to 1994. He had trained as a lawyer and later on as a barrister from Grays Inn in London. He later taught at the law scho ...

, had the power to expel MPs who had changed their party affiliation since their election. This ruling was set to have an enormous impact because the incumbent

President of Malawi The president of the Republic of Malawi ( ny, Mtsogoleri wa Dziko la Malawi) is the head of state and head of government of Malawi. The president leads the executive branch of the Government of Malawi and is the commander-in-chief of the Malawia ...

Bingu wa Mutharika Bingu wa Mutharika (; born Brightson Webster Ryson Thom; 24 February 1934 – 5 April 2012) was a Malawian politician and economist who was President of Malawi from May 2004 until his death in April 2012. He was also President of the Democ ...

formed his

Democratic Progressive Party The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a Taiwanese nationalist and centre-left political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). Controlling both the Republic of China presidency and the unicameral Legislative Yuan, it is the majori ...

as a split from the United Democratic Front after the last election, meaning that if Chimango expelled most of the DPP lawmakers, Mutharika would lose his majority in the National Assembly, making a move to

impeach Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In E ...

him very likely.
/sup> When the possible impeachment was very close in the session of 3 July 2007, about 41 parliamentarians who would have been victim of this so-called Section 65 clause obtained an injunction against the speaker to prevent him from impeaching them; as chaos erupted in parliament, the speaker postponed the session ''

sine die In mathematics, sine and cosine are trigonometric functions of an angle. The sine and cosine of an acute angle are defined in the context of a right triangle: for the specified angle, its sine is the ratio of the length of the side that is oppo ...

''.
/sup> On 23 July, parliament got together again to tackle the impeachment issue as well as next year's budget; President Mutharika threatened with early general elections. The injunction also expired on that date.
/sup> Parliament was then suspended indefinitely as there was no agreement reached on 24 July as to how to proceed regarding the 2007/2008 budget; as the interim budget had only been passed until 31 July 2007, however, it remains to be seen whether the suspension is kept up. In another turn, concerned citizens sued the National Assembly for violating their right to development by failing to pass a budget; according to the chairman of the

Malawi Law Society Malawi Law Society is a legal membership organization that unites all lawyers in Malawi. It is administered by an elected executive board. Malawi Legal Information Institute (MLII) The Malawi Legal Information Institute is a division of the MLS.

, the suit has good chances of being acted on by the High Court.
/sup> The president started ruling by decree on 1 August, ordering the allocation of funds in lieu of an actual budget. The Southern African Development Community, SADC Parliamentary Forum has suggested it would be willing to mediate in the crisis.
/sup> On August 7, the chief justice of the Supreme Court issued an injunction allowing the opposition MPs to continue blocking the budget. Critics have asserted that it would take half a year to organise the large number of by-elections which would ensue if all MPs who had crossed the floor were expelled.
/sup> The injunction was lifted on 8 August, after public protests ensued. On 14 August, Mutharika set a deadline of two days for the parliament to discuss the budget, threatening to "close down parliament" otherwise.
/sup> The crisis finally stopped on 23 August, when the opposition parties agreed to stop their fight for section 65, stating that it had been misinterpreted as a fight against the budget.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2007 Malawian Political Crisis 2007 in Malawi, Political crisis Malawian political crisis Politics of Malawi Malawi 2007