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Chihana has to resign—Mpasu
By
Aubrey Mchulu - 22-04-2003 |
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Speaker Sam Mpasu has warned the newly-appointed Second Vice President Chakufwa Chihana to resign from his Rumphi Central parliamentary seat or he will declare it vacant.
Mpasu said in an interview yesterday according to Section 80 (7) (e) of the Constitution, Chihana should have resigned from Parliament before taking the oath of second vice president following his appointment by President Bakili Muluzi on April 9, 2003.
“Normally, he should have resigned first before taking the oath of the Second Vice President but he hasn’t done so up to now and if he doesn’t [resign], the only option is for me to declare his seat vacant in terms of the law,” Mpasu said, hoping Chihana gets “proper legal advice” on the issue.
Section 80 (7) (e) states that “no person shall be eligible for nomination as a candidate as President or First Vice President or for appointment as First Vice-President or Second Vice-President if that person is the holder of a public office or a member of Parliament.”
But Attorney General Peter Fachi, whose office is legal advisor to the President and government, said in a separate interview he needs time “to look at the law to give a reasoned understanding of the law.”
Fachi also pointed out that he was appointed Attorney General at the same time with Chihana and others hence he could not have advised the President on the apparent breach of the provision of the Constitution.
Chief Justice Leonard Unyolo swore-in Chihana as Second Vice President last Monday at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre.
Besides being the second veep and MP, Chihana is also Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Food Security, thereby holding three public offices.
Based on the same Section 80 (7) (e) of the Constitution, in 1994 Muluzi gave up his parliamentary seat in Machinga North-East while Vice President Justin Malewezi gave-up his Ntchisi North-East seat in 1999 after Muluzi won the presidential race with him as running mate.
Chihana was voted Rumphi Central MP on an Aford ticket during the 1999 presidential and parliamentary election in which he paired with MCP president Gwanda Chakuamba as running mate in the two parties’ electoral alliance.
Mpasu could not indicate whether he will declare the seat vacant during the forthcoming sitting of Parliament scheduled for May 12, 2003 or he would do it through the Malawi Gazette Supplement as he did with Dowa East MP Nasser Wali Kara.
Kara’s seat was declared vacant after he missed three consecutive meetings of Parliament while he was on remand on murder charges but reclaimed it through a court injunction stopping the Speaker from enforcing the decision.
Electoral Commission spokesman Fergus Lipenga said in an interview yesterday that when Parliament officially communicates the vacancy, the commission will meet to decide how to fill it saying a by election depends on two things: a vacancy and funding.
He said the electoral laws are also silent on the cutoff point to fill vacancies in the run-up to general elections.
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