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The Malawi president wields a lot of powers which should now be the subject of checks and balances. The President must not be a part of the legislature, the 2003 Malawi state of governance report has recommended.
“The concept of separation of powers is enshrined in the country’s constitution but in actual fact, the President wields a lot of power. He is the head of state, head of government and commander in-chief of the armed forces.
“He appoints and dispatches ministers, senior civil servants and ambassadors to foreign countries,” the country’s 2003 state of governance report issued by the United Nations Development Programme says.
The 66-page document says to avoid abuse of power, the presidency could use it to share and delegate some of its roles.
“At present the constitution stipulates that a parliamentary committee must confirm political appointments, but only to certain public offices. High level officials, including ministers are exempt. Here is one area where the President’s authority could be distributed by expanding parliamentary approval duties to include ministers and other senior officials,” it says.
It says another area to be examined is a provision under Article 89 in the Constitution that makes the President a part of the legislature as head of state, free to approve or veto bills.
This, the report says, undermines the concept of separation of powers and democratic development.
Associate professor in law at Chancellor College Garton Kamchedzera concurred with the observations of the report.
He said there are adequate checks and balances within the other branches of government but not the executive, a situation which can easily lead to abuse of power by the president.
“Within the legislature you have the Speaker and members of Parliament from various political parties and they can regularly check on each other. The Judiciary too has a system of appeals where a case from a lower court can be referred to a higher court.
“Within the presidency there is nothing like that and where party, personal and economic interests are paramount, there is need to distribute those powers more widely and define them more strictly. Last time we had similar powers in the presidency we ended up with a dictatorship,” he said
Director of Church and Society of the Livingstonia Synod of the CCAP, Moses Mkandawire agreed, saying the Malawi Constitution was written in a hurry and there is need to take stock of how it has been used to build democratic principles.
“The President for example appoints directors of governance institutions like the Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Law Commission, the Ombudsman. There is no way the institutions can work against the presidency,” he said.
The police has also come under scrutiny in the report.
“The police service is probably the government institution that is the least popular. There is a general perception, also acknowledged by the police, that crime is on the rise,” the report says.
Recent incidents, the report adds, such as the stopping of demonstrations, which were declared legal by the court, refusal of police leadership to appear in investigations into incidents of police irregularity as well as a refusal to conduct an inquiry into the shooting of a student have all contributed to tarnish the image of the police.
“There are also stories reported of harassment and unnecessary rough behaviour in connection with random road blocks and check points involving ordinary people,” it says.
The report suggests that due to the public distrust of the police “and the stories circulating of complaints being swept under the carpet, an Independent Complaints Authority should be established to process complaints against the police”.
Attorney general Peter Fachi and Minister of Information Henderson Mabeti refused to comment on the either the report or the assertion that the presidency in Malawi wields too much powers, claiming they had not gone through the report.
The report has been compiled by the UNDP in collaboration with the Norwegian and Malawi governments. It was presented to President Bakili Muluzi and visiting UNDP administrator Mark Malloch Brown on Tuesday.
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