{"id":55467,"date":"2023-12-28T21:31:38","date_gmt":"2023-12-28T21:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/of-malawis-supreme-law-over-political-party-constitutions"},"modified":"2023-12-28T21:51:11","modified_gmt":"2023-12-28T21:51:11","slug":"of-malawis-supreme-law-over-political-party-constitutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/of-malawis-supreme-law-over-political-party-constitutions","title":{"rendered":"Of Malawi\u2019s supreme law over political party constitutions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Malawi. <\/strong><\/span>In our vernacular language, there is an adage that stipulates that \u2018Penda penda sikugwa koma kuchalira ulendo\u2019. This can be likened to an aircraft that experiences lots of turbulence during its time of take-off but is destined to fly over a long distance.<\/p>\n<p>Malawians know that the ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) underwent internal political turbulence before its ascension to power in 2020. It is therefore not surprising that there are also internal incessant political squabbles within the main opposition party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).<\/p>\n<p>The only major difference between the erstwhile MCP squabbles and the current DPP wrangles is that MCP was strategic enough to expeditiously resolve those disagreements. At the same time, DPP seems to be clueless on how to tackle the quagmire at hand.<\/p>\n<p>The MCP National Executive Committee (NEC) strived to change the party\u2019s constitution to align it with the Malawi Constitution. MCP NEC envisaged a situation whereby the party\u2019s president would win presidential elections in his second and last term of being the party\u2019s president.<\/p>\n<p>This scenario fitted well with President Chakwera\u2019s state of affairs because President Chakwera indeed won the 2020 fresh presidential elections while serving his second and last term of being the party\u2019s president.<\/p>\n<p>It is a well-known fact that by 2025, President Chakwera will have served his first term of being the State President of the country and therefore he is constitutionally eligible to stand for the 2025 presidential elections<\/p>\n<p>Should the MCP Constitution bar President Chakwera from standing as MCP torchbearer in 2025 when the Malawi Constitution allows him to do so? Fortunately, the MCP Constitution was revised to resolve such an anomaly well in advance.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, such efforts to change the MCP Constitution faced strong resistance from the party\u2019s elite such as Dr. Jessie Kabwira and veteran lawyer Gustav Kaliwo.<\/p>\n<p>These enlightened members of the party argued that the party\u2019s constitution was not supposed to be changed just to accommodate the interests of a single individual, Dr. Lazarus Chakwera. The aftermath is that Dr. Jessie Kabwira and Gustav Kaliwo were summarily expelled from the party and peace prevailed in the party thereafter.<\/p>\n<p>A similar case has ensued in DPP arguing that the party\u2019s constitution bars Prof. Peter Mutharika from standing as the party\u2019s torchbearer for the 2025 presidential elections because by 2025 he will have served his maximum two terms as the party\u2019s president.<\/p>\n<p>Let us put the facts straight. Prof. Peter Mutharika is indeed serving his second term as the party\u2019s president. It is also true that in his second term, Prof. Peter Mutharika contested as a presidential candidate twice. This is a special case.<\/p>\n<p>During the 2019 presidential elections, he emerged the winner but the constitutional court later robbed him of his victory by nullifying the elections.<\/p>\n<p>During the 2020 fresh presidential election, Prof Peter Mutharika dismally lost because DPP as a party did not apply enough effort to stage vigorous campaigns for fresh presidential elections.<\/p>\n<p>In conclusion, the DPP must feature Prof. Peter Mutharika as its torchbearer for the 2025 presidential elections solely because the Constitution Court robbed him of his victory by nullifying the 2019 presidential elections. Besides this, the Malawi Constitution empowers him to stand again as he has served only one presidential term.<\/p>\n<p>Malawi Constitution makes provision for constitutional supremacy. Section 5 states explicitly that any act of government or law that is inconsistent with provisions of the Malawi Constitution shall be rendered invalid. Therefore a party\u2019s constitution cannot override the provisions of the Malawi Constitution.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\">Malawi<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Malawi. In our vernacular language, there is an adage that stipulates that \u2018Penda penda sikugwa koma kuchalira ulendo\u2019. This can be likened to an aircraft that experiences lots of turbulence during its time of take-off but is destined to fly over a long distance. Malawians know that the ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":55465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,25,6],"tags":[233,371,234],"class_list":["post-55467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-featured","category-files","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-malawi","tag-malawi"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Of Malawi\u2019s supreme law over political party constitutions - Malawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In our vernacular language, there is an adage that stipulates that \u2018Penda penda sikugwa koma kuchalira ulendo\u2019. 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