Malawis president has given parliament two days to agree a budget or he says he will close it down, BBC online reports Tuesday.
Bingu wa Mutharika said opposition MPs were playing “games with the lives of the people” by not meeting to seriously discuss the long-delayed budget.
President Mutharika leads a minority government after he left the party on whose ticket he was elected in 2004. Opposition MPs are refusing to discuss the budget unless MPs who switched to the presidents party are expelled.
The government says key state services and international aid contributions are at risk if the budget is not approved.
The budget session started on 21 April. – There is no parliament on this earth that will discuss the budget for four months. So I am saying the opposition is irresponsible, the President said.
Analysts say the row could topple the government, which has so far insisted that the budget is approved before the question of expelling MPs is addressed. The deadlock is likely to be a cause for concern to international donors who contribute 40 per cent of the poor Southern African countrys budget.
The political impasse began in June, when the Supreme Court ruled that the speaker of parliament can expel MPs who switch parties. Most members of President wa Mutharikas party were elected on the ticket of the former ruling party, the United Democratic Front (UDF).
Analysts say should the speaker expel the floor-crossing MPs, it could take six months to organise all the by-elections which would ensue.
