Lilongwe: Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera has ordered the country’s recently dissolved Parliament to reconvene on August 5 to amend the voting law to ensure that all eligible citizens, including those assigned to duty on election day, can cast their votes.
Malawi’s 2019-2025 Parliament was dissolved on Wednesday by National Assembly Speaker Catherine Gotani Hara, in line with constitutional provisions for an election year. However, the Constitution empowers the president to recall Parliament before a general election if a constitutional crisis is deemed to have arisen, Xinhua News Agency reported.
A supplement to the government Gazette dated Friday and signed by Chakwera confirmed the decision to reconvene Parliament to consider amending the Presidential, Parliamentary, and Local Government Elections Act.
A follow-up statement from the State House on Saturday provided further clarification.
“President Chakwera… has ordered that Parliament be reconvened for an emergency session on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025, to amend the Presidential, Parliamentary, and Local Government Elections Act in order to allow Malawians who will be posted on duty for various electoral services in various parts of the country on election day to cast their vote where they are posted, instead of where they registered,” the statement read.
It added that the proposed amendment seeks to safeguard every Malawian’s constitutional right to vote.
Malawi is scheduled to hold its general election on September 16 to elect the president, members of Parliament, and local government councillors.
More than 20 presidential aspirants, including incumbent President Chakwera and two former presidents, Peter Mutharika and Joyce Banda, have declared their intention to contest the presidency.
Malawi’s President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera was sworn into office on June 28, 2020. Before joining frontline politics, Chakwera was President of the Malawi Assemblies of God from 1989 until he resigned on May 14, 2013 to contest in the 2014 General Elections as a presidential candidate for the Malawi Congress Party.
(IANS)
