THE CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF MALAWI Tenure of office Section 83 (4) reads: Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the President, the First Vice-President shall assume that office for the remainder of the term and shall appoint another person to serve as First Vice President for the remainder of the term. It becomes more interesting when it is not read in isolation from Section 83 (3) which states that The President, The First Vice-President and The Second Vice-President may serve in their respective capacities a maximum of two consecutive terms, but when a person is elected or appointed to fill a vacancy in the office of the President or Vice-President, the period between that election or appointment and the next election of a President shall not be regarded as term. Understandably, the State President is elected together with the running mate at any general elections. However, it is yet to be determined whether a President is elected because of the qualities of the running mate. In most cases the choice of the running mate is not as rigorous as it is with the President in most of the parties in Malawi. The Presidential candidate, in most cases has the sole right to hire a running mate to pair with at the elections. The nation is not involved in the selection of a running mate. Then why should the national affairs be presided over by someone who was handpicked by an individual for the rest of the period after the untimely demise of the President without the consent from the people of the republic? If we are to have another of constitutional review conference in the near future, I would propose that a clause in the Zambian constitution where the caretaker president could run the affairs of the state in acting capacity until fresh by-elections are held within a period of 90 days after the fall of the incumbent, be adopted in our own constitution. This will ensure that the President-elect has the full mandate to govern derived from the people of this great republic Mr. Speaker I beg to move:
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 11:28:16 +0000
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