Catholic Bishop Monsignor Boniface Tamani has taken a swipe at Malawi judiciary for having overriding powers of other branches of government, like Parliament.
The outspoken Tamani was speaking at St Pius Catholic Church in Blantyre on July,25,2021.
Tamani says judiciary’s duty according to the constitution of Malawi is to interpret the laws of the country and not make laws.
Tamani further says the 50+1 issue was debated twice in Parliament and it was rejected by the arm of government whose responsibility is to make laws and not case laws as with the case with judiciary.
“My question is that was it right for the judges to force Parliament to make laws against their mandate? “In terms of law making Parliament is absolute. The judiciary has not mandate to tell Parliament on how to make laws of this country because that is not their mandate and that nobody must gag our Parliament on how to make laws in this country,” said Tamani in his special message to Saint Pius Catholic Church,who went on to ask the country that what mechanisms have been put in place so that next time the judiciary will not overstretch their mandate again?
On alliances and coalitions, Tamani said it is necessary that we provide in the constitution to have proviso that must state that if two or three political parties form a coalition government, whenever one party decides to pull out, that must be the end of the government and new General Election must be called to usher in new leadership because as it stands now, for example if UTM decides to pull out, it means we shall have a government which is ‘illegal’ as it shall have less than 50+1 threshold mandatory law.
“He is absolutely right. For 50%+1 to work we need to provide in the Constitution that no President must form a government unless they secure 75% in Parliament” one legal scholar has suggested who did not want to be named for political reasons. This comes at a time when reports are rife that UTM and MCP are on the verge of partying ways following some contentious issues regarding cabinet posts.
Just preach the word. What you must know is that the 50+1 was being rejectesld becaus of the DPP greed and not in the interest of the majority of Malawians. Please note that any govt formed with less than 50% of the votes is a minority govt and has no mandate to rule the whole nation. Be a parrot but please do not blame the judiciary, where were you then ?
This is the finest analysis and this guy is one of the greatest thinkers. To be honest our judiciary system brought more confusion than solution into the political arena. In that judgement made by the concourt and the supreme court, there are a lot of grey areas that demand answers right now rather than waiting for the future to provide. In it we see lots of contradictions and favouritism to oppress one sector and give another one an upper hand. For instance voter registration was suspended and if you look closely even the party formation would have been the same but, surprisingly new parties with new running mates ermerged. One wonders, was it a deliberate move to recharrange the vote once apm was to be redeclared the winner? How on earth can new teams allowed to come up with new teams and names for penalty shoot out after they locked up in a draw in 120 minutes of play? Another questionable thing is the ruling on 50+1 which was never raised by the complainants team. The question is, are the courts the only branch to make commands out of the blues in a democracy? If yes, under which circumstances? We need to know. Even one of our known constitutional lawyer, once law maker and a calm politician cautioned this arm of government to exercise linience and avoid to have its powers overriding those of other branches. There is need to think about what this guy has raised rather than opposing him for argument’s sake. Thats great observation monsinor, keep it up 👍👍👍!!!