National Assembly (Malawi)

National Assembly
National Assembly
Type
Type	Lower House (de jure); Unicameral (de facto)
History
Founded	26 May 1964
New session started	June 2019
Leadership
Speaker	Catherine Gotani Hara, MCP ; since 19 June 2019
Structure
Seats	193
Political groups	Government (97) MCP (59); UTM (5); Independent (33); Opposition (96) DPP (56); UDF (10); PP (4); AFORD (1); Independent (25);
Length of term	5 years
Elections
Voting system	First-past-the-post
Last election	21 May 2019
Meeting place
	Lilongwe
Website
	www.parliament.gov.mw

The National Assembly of Malawi is the supreme legislative body of the nation. It is situated on Capital Hill, Lilongwe 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.^[3] Since June 19, 2019 the Speaker is Catherine Gotani Hara.

The 1994 Constitution provided for a Senate but Parliament repealed it. Malawi therefore has a unicameral legislature in practice.^[3] The National Assembly has 193 members of Parliament (MPs) who are directly elected in single-member constituencies using the simple majority (or first-past-the-post) system and serve five-year terms.^[4]

^ Article 49 of the Constitution of Malawi: "'Parliament' consists of the National Assembly, the Senate and the President as Head of State."
^ https://t.me/africaelects/183 #Malawi: after losing 6 of the 7 recent by-elections, the DPP (centre) has lost its relative majority in the National Assembly for the first time since 2009.
^ ^a ^b http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/cafrad/unpan004840.pdf ^{[bare URL PDF]}
^ "africanelectionsportal.org -Malawi-". africanelections.org.

Cite error: There are <ref group=nb> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=nb}} template (see the help page).

[1] Article 49 of the Constitution of Malawi: "'Parliament' consists of the National Assembly, the Senate and the President as Head of State."

[3] ttps://t.me/africaelects/183 #Malawi: after losing 6 of the 7 recent by-elections, the DPP (centre) has lost its relative majority in the National Assembly for the first time since 2009.

[un.org-4] ttp://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/cafrad/unpan004840.pdf ^{[bare URL PDF]}

[5] "africanelectionsportal.org -Malawi-". africanelections.org.

[nb 1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

National Assembly

Type
Type	Lower House (de jure)^{[nb 1]} Unicameral (de facto)
History
Founded	26 May 1964
New session started	June 2019
Leadership
Speaker	Catherine Gotani Hara, MCP since 19 June 2019
Structure
Seats	193

Political groups	Government (97)^[2] MCP (59) UTM (5) Independent (33) Opposition (96) DPP (56) UDF (10) PP (4) AFORD (1) Independent (25)
Length of term	5 years
Elections
Voting system	First-past-the-post
Last election	21 May 2019
Meeting place

Lilongwe
Website
www.parliament.gov.mw