AT long last, the government seems to be
\ndancing to the beat of reason for, after playing
\nhide-and-seek with the opposition and, by
\nextension, Malawians on Electoral Reforms
\nAmendment Bills, sanity finally prevailed
\nyesterday when the government side promised
\nto table two out of six bills on the same.
\nWhile we take the government\u2019s promise
\nwith a pinch of salt, we believe that the promise
\nhas been made in good faith considering that
\nMalawi is on the verge of ending electionrelated
\nconflicts.
\nMemories of the 2014 Tripartite Elections
\nand, of course, the election of 2009, 2004
\nand 1999 are still fresh. We are talking of
\nexperiences we have had, in terms of disputes
\nrelated to election results. Save for the
\nelections of 1994, when the Malawi Congress
\nParty (MCP) honourably bowed out of the
\ngovernment and peacefully handed over the
\nmantle to the United Democratic Front, our
\nelections have been marred by disputes.
\nAgainst this background, it baffles us that
\nthe government continues to play delaying
\ntactics, when it comes to tabling the six
\nElectoral Reforms Amendment Bills. In fact,
\nthe government side seems to have been
\nspurred into action after push came to shove.
\nOn Monday, MCP Members of Parliament
\nand legislators from some opposition parties
\nwalked out of Parliament\u2019s chamber. The
\nlegislators only returned to the chamber
\nyesterday, after the Business Committee of
\nParliament hastily made an announcement,
\nto the effect that two bills would be tabled as
\na matter of urgency. Further to that, it was
\nsuggested that the current meeting be extended
\nbeyond its term to make way for legislators to
\ntable the four remaining bills.
\nWe can only hope that the government side
\nwill not revert to the tried and tired tactics
\nof delaying the inevitable. The only way out
\nof this, and the sure way to winning citizens\u2019
\ntrust, is to live up to its promise and bring on
\nthe bills for tabling.
\nWe do not want the government to hide
\nbehind costs and run away from people\u2019s
\nexpectations. The issue of money sounds like
\nanother evasive tactic.
\nWe need the laws and when you need
\nsomething there is a cost to it. With pressure
\nmounting from all angles, except the ruling
\nparty, the writing is on the wall that this
\ngovernment has been sailing against citizens\u2019
\nwishes, forgetting that leaders rule on trust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AT long last, the government seems to be dancing to the beat of reason for, after playing hide-and-seek with the opposition and, by extension, Malawians on Electoral Reforms Amendment Bills, sanity finally prevailed yesterday when the government side promised to table two out of six bills on the same. While we take the government\u2019s promise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":42927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57268,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57263\/revisions\/57268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}