RULING BY THE HON MR SPEAKER ON A POINT OF ORDER RAISED BY DR M MALAMA, MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT FOR KANCHIBIYA PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUENCY AGAINST PARLIAMENT ON TUESDAY, 27^THFEBRUARY, 2018 

Hon Members will recall that on Tuesday, 20^th February, 2018, after the Hon Minister of Finance had just rendered a Ministerial Statement on the alleged collapse of the Central Computing System at the Ministry of Finance and the Member of Parliament for Mazabuka Central Parliamentary Constituency, Mr G G Nkombo, MP, was on the floor, Dr Malama, MP, raised the following Point of Order:

“Mr Speaker, when the hon. Member, the Whip of the Opposition, was on the Floor, I saw on his photo, colours which are very partisan. Is Parliament in order to allow that?”

Hon Members, the Point of Order refers to the attire that Mr G G Nkombo, MP, is wearing in the photo that appears on the display unit whenever he rises to speak and essentially asks whether Parliament is in order to allow the exhibition of “political colours”.

In my response, I reserved my ruling. I have studied the matter and will now render my ruling.

I wish to begin by guiding the House that a Point of Order cannot be raised against the House. This is because the purpose of a Point of Order is to draw the Speaker’s attention to a breach of the rules of the House by a Member. In this regard, the Point of Order was flawed and ordinarily I would not have entertained it.

However, since it raises a novel issue, I have decided to seize this opportunity to give the House some guidance on the matter raised in the Point of Order.

Hon Members, as you are well aware, it is prohibited for any person to wear or display any form of political party regalia on the precincts of Parliament. This is because the precincts of Parliament are not a place for political party activities or campaigns, but are a place where the people’s representatives converge to conduct the affairs of the entire nation. Further, allowing party regalia in the House can potentially result in unnecessary political conflict that will divert the attention of the House from serious business that it requires to transact.

Having said that, I wish to state that wearing attire, whose colour is associated with a political party, but which does not bear any political party symbol or reference to that party does not amount to wearing party regalia. 

Hon Members, I carefully examined the photo that displays on the screen whenever Mr G G Nkombo, MP, speaks through his microphone. My examination revealed that while the shirt, indeed, appears to be in the United Party for National Development’s (UPND) signature colour; red, it does not bear any party symbol or indeed any reference to the UPND. In this regard, it is admissible. I, however, noted that the attire Hon G G Nkombo wore in the photo was quite informal. While there is no rule barring this, I wish to urge Hon Members to, as far as possible, submit photos that conform to the official dress code provided in Standing Order 165 whenever they are submitting photos for official use.

That is my ruling.