The Speaker of the Malawi National Assembly Richard Msowoya on Friday ruled that the Leader of Opposition Lazarus Chakwera disrespected President Peter Mutharika through his response to the State of the Nation Address (SONA).

Delivering his ruling which faced protests from the opposition side, Msowoya said Chakwera used unparliamentary language in his response to the speech.

Msowoya warned that it is against Parliamentary standing orders to disrespect a head of state.

In his reaction, veteran Parliamentarian for Lilongwe Mapuyu South Joseph Njobvuyalema described Chakwera’s ruling as ‘not democratic’.

“This ruling is not according to Parliamentary democracy globally as well as regionally. I know what is happening in SADC Parliaments so I don’t agree with it.”

Njobvuyalema faulted Msowoya for using archaic rules when coming up with the ruling.

“He had to go into our rules, he had to go into other scenarios to come up with a decision. Now the problem is he has used rules which we think as Parliament do not promote democractic,” said Njobvuyalema to YFM online.

Njobvuyalema suggested that it is high time that some Parliamentary standing orders should be reviewed to match the democratic era.

President Mutharika opened the 47th session of Parliament in Lilongwe on November 10, 2017.