The National Assembly of

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northe ...

is the supreme legislative body of the nation. It is situated on Capital Hill,

Lilongwe Lilongwe (, , ) is the capital and most populated city of the African country of Malawi. It has a population of 989,318 as of the 2018 Census, up from a population of 674,448 in 2008. In 2020 that figure was 1,122,000. The city is located in th ...

along Presidential Way. The National Assembly alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in Malawi. At its head is the Speaker of the House who is elected by his or her peers.http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/cafrad/unpan004840.pdf Since June 19, 2019 the Speaker is

Catherine Gotani Hara Catherine Gotani Hara is a Malawian politician who has been the Speaker of the National Assembly since June 2019, the first woman to hold the position. Early life and education Gotani Hara attended Kamuzu Academy, and has a Bachelor of Arts i ...

. The 1994 Constitution provided for a Senate but Parliament repealed it. Malawi therefore has a

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multi ...

legislature in practice. The National Assembly has 193 Members of Parliament (MPs) who are directly elected in single-member

constituencies An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...

using the simple majority (or

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast the ...

) system and serve five-year terms.

Current Parliament

The current parliament was inaugurated in June 2019 after the

2019 Malawian general election General elections were held in Malawi on 21 May 2019 to elect the President, National Assembly and local government councillors. Incumbent President Peter Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party was re-elected, with his party remaining th ...

. No party managed to secure a

majority A majority, also called a simple majority or absolute majority to distinguish it from related terms, is more than half of the total.Dictionary definitions of ''majority'' aMerriam-Webster Peter Mutharika Arthur Peter Mutharika (born 18 July 1940) is a Malawian politician and lawyer who was President of Malawi from May 2014 to June 2020. Mutharika has worked in the field of international justice, specialising in international economic law, inter ...

won the presidential election, however, due to irregularities the constitutional court ordered a re-run of the presidential elections in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

. Parliament passed the Parliamentary and Presidential Elections Act (PPEA) Amendment Bill on 24 February 2020, extended the terms of MPs and local councillors by one year to allow for harmonised presidential, parliamentary and local elections in 2025.

Notes

References

External links

* Politics of Malawi

Government of Malawi

{{Malawi-stub

Current Parliament

See also

Notes

References

External links