Section 65 out of court

Section 65 case out of court

BY SUZGO KHUNGA

 

Lawyers in the case in which MPs were challenging procedures laid out in Section 65 of the Constitution for crossing the floor have agreed to withdraw the case.

 

The matter will instead be referred to Parliament which will be expected to implement a comprehensive reform on Standing Orders which lay down procedures for removing an MP who is deemed to have crossed the floor.

 

This is because the MPs lawyers had argued that for the speaker to evoke Section 65, a committee should be formed according to Standing Order 46 (2) but this was not the case.

 

"A law should be passed addressing the problems on procedure for removing an MP in the standing orders not just relying on the Constitution," said the source.

 

He hoped this would be done before the five years of the current Parliament is up because the process would not be targeting anyone.

 

In this Parliament, the ruling party DPP has a majority of over 100 MPs which puts all legislation introduced to the House at a great advantage.

 

The lawyer said such laws would also apply to Section 86 (2) which talks about impeachment of the president and his vice whose relevant standing orders are not clearly laid down.

 

"The ones put in place a few years ago were also targeting the sitting president," he said.

 

Attorney General Jane Ansah said in an interview yesterday that as defendants, it was not up to them to withdraw the matter.

 

She said she could not say more because she was yet to receive a report on the case from the lawyers assigned.

 

 

The MPs lawyers also argued that the manner in which the Speaker had wanted to declare the MPs seats vacant was in contravention of the principles of natural justice, especially the right of the MPs to be heard.

 

This development comes after almost a year of adjournments on the start of a judicial review which the Lilongwe High Court granted Zomba Central MP Yunus Mussa and 40 others.

 

The MPs were represented by Innocentia Ottober and Maxon Mbendera among others while the state was represented by senior state advocate Pacharo Kayira and private lawyer Allan Chinula.

 

The injunction stopping Speaker Louis Chimango from evoking Section 65 was sought in 2007 and was lifted to allow for a judicial hearing which did not start.

 

The court had also allowed that the ground that the rights of parties must determined on the basis of the state of the law as it existed at the time when the issues arose not as it is now.

 

In a press release entitled 'Challenges for Parliament in 2008'  which the former speaker Louis Chimango issued prior to the elections, he said Section 65 matters were 100 per cent unresolved.