Access to Information Bill Passed

The much anticipated Access to Information Bill has finally been passed by the Malawi National Assembly Wednesday night.

Opposition parties fought hard for the conclusion of the Committee Stage of the bill and passing following several attempts by Government to suspend proceedings as well as to refer the bill back to responsible committees to allow further consultations on some clauses in the bill.

All motions to suspend proceedings and refer the bill back to committees were defeated by opposition with narrow votes during roll call voting’s.

Government was mainly opposing passing of the bill in its present state particularly the bill’s mention of Human Rights Commission as oversight institution on the right to of access information.

At the very start of the Wednesday sitting, the House was suspended for 30 minutes but the resumed sitting after an hour when the disagreement erupted on whether they needed to begin proceedings with the continuation of Committee Stage of the bill which began on Tuesday or other matters. When the House resumed sitting, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Richard Msowoya informed the House that the Business Committee had in their meeting agreed to continue with Committee Stage of the bill.

But almost half an hour into the stage, Leader of the House, George Chaponda moved a motion for suspension of the proceedings to Friday morning for further consultations on some other clauses that were deferred during the stage. However, the motion led to division and was narrowly defeated during a roll call voting when Opposition bench got 66 votes against Government bench 55 votes and during the voting there were 60 absentees and 1 abstention. 

This rejection led to another division following another motion from the Chaponda that the bill be refereed back to the responsible committees of Legal Affairs and the Media, Information and Communication and quoted Standing Order 130(6).

However, this attempt failed again when Opposition parties also narrowly won during the roll call with 55 votes against Government 50 votes and during this voting there were 67 absenteeism.

This win gave more vigor to Opposition bench to continue with Committee Stage passing several clauses that were postponed to a later stage on Tuesday and the same Wednesday night. The fight to see the bill passed continued to the last mile when the stage was completed and finally the House passed the bill.