Leader of Opposition Lazarus Chakwera has described President Mutharika’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) as a ‘public lecture’ which lacked key issues which are affecting Malawians.

Mutharika on Friday presided over the official opening of the 47th session of Parliament where among others he presented some of the achievements the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) regime claims to have made.

Mutharika also cautioned members of Parliament to be accountable with how they utilise the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) among others in a speech entitled Rising above macroeconomic stability.

Chakwera said the address missed out some key issues like the tabling of the electoral reforms and the political parties bill.

“We have a loud silence on electoral reforms despite that his own Ministers are on record saying such will be tabled in this sitting,” said Chakwera who is President of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP).

Chakwera described Mutharika’s claims that there are other political parties are just opposing for the sake of it as not true.

He said Government needs to start showing seriousness in dealing with issues of financial mismanagement which was also highlighted in the SONA.

“We haven’t had any major arrests since the Peoples Party Government left but we read stories in the press about what has been happening since 2014 so we are yet to see a major breakthrough in the fight against corruption,” explained Chakwera.

The current sitting of Parliament is expected to be interesting due to the energy crisis the country is going through and the new faces the house has just received from the October 17 By-elections.