Peter Dimba was the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) candidate for the position of Speaker and he is a graduate from the then Malawi Polytechnic.

From the member of parliament who moved the motion for his speakership, Dimba holds a master’s degree in accounting from a reputable academic institution.

Additionally , Dimba has been the chair of Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament for three parliamentary cohorts before he was appointed to the position of a cabinet minister.

Interestingly, Dimba is unanimously known to be level headed, calm, composed, mature, thoughtful and calculative.

On the other hand, the current speaker of the National Assembly, Sameer Suleman was allegedly kicked out of Football Association of Malawi because he did not have a Malawi School Certificate of Education.

Moreover, critics surmise that he has questionable and unpredictable character and behaviour.

It still remains unearthed if this unpredictability of his behavior contributed to the victory of his speakership.

In a dramatic lane of events, Suleman was usually suspended from parliament because of his unbecoming behavior, which includes fighting with other legislators in the Chamber in front of cameras.

It is exciting that today marks a historic event when the former speaker of the National Assembly, Gotani Hara, had a cordial handshake with Sameer signifying a commute of congratulatory message.

The truth of the matter is that numbers matter a lot in the National Assembly.

Being all elected as members of parliamentary, strategising separated Suleiman from Dimba.

On the other front, it is being debated that DPP is a system as it featured 3 DPP candidates for the position of a speaker with Suleiman emerging as a victor and others getting a zero vote.

It is against this background that Kondwani Nankhumwa was disqualified from the race because he had submitted nomination papers late and contrary to parliamentary orders, his submission indicated that he was the fifth in terms of chronogical time.

It must be emphasised that parliamentary orders demand that there should be a maximum of 4 contestants for the position of a speaker.

Will Suleiman be an impartial and progressive speaker? Only time will tell.

The Maravi Post