The Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament has weighed in its support on a proposal by the National Planning Commission (NPC) that all political parties in the country should align their manifestos to the national development blueprint, Malawi 2063 (MW 2063).

According to the Committee’s Chairperson Peter Dimba, it is high time political parties serve the best interest of Malawians by implementing their developmental plan.

Dimba added that the proposed Political Parties Amendment Bill is crucial when it comes to developing Malawi in all sectors.

“The law is very progressive and as Legal Affairs Committee we are very excited with that because this will ensure that the manifestos of political parties align with the national development agenda.

“As you are aware we owe this country to the future generation so it is very important that whatever Party comes into government aligns itself to the development agenda of the nation,” he said.

On his part, NPC Legal Advisor Mtamandeni Liabunya dismissed fears that the move will result the political parties moving away from their agenda.

“The essence of the Bill is essentially to ask Parliament to pass some recommendations that we have made as NPC to ensure that we have the necessary tools to realise the aspirations that are embedded within MW 2063.

“There is a particular and specific monitoring and evaluation framework that has been developed in relation to tracking progress that has been made in the implementation and realisation of MW 2063,” highlighted Liabunya.

One of the major challenges that negatively impacted on attainment of Vision 2020 was differences in political party development agenda.

To address this challenge, MW 2063 recommended amendment of the Political Parties Act to require all political parties to align their manifestos to the national development agenda in order to ensure progressive attainment of the national development agenda.