not less and not more than twelve months from that date (in this section referred to as the “period of
provisional application”).
(2) During the period of provisional application Parliament may amend or repeal this
Constitution in accordance with this section subject only to section 196.
(3) Within fourteen days of the first sitting of Parliament after the appointed day, Parliament
shall appoint a Committee to be known as the Constitution Committee which shall consist of the
Speaker of the National Assembly as Chairman of the Committee and ten other members of Parliament
appointed by the National Assembly.
(4) The function of the Constitution Committee shall be to—
(a)
organize national education and consultation on this Constitution;
(b)
organize a national conference fully representative of Malawian society;
(c)
invite, receive and consider proposals from the citizens of Malawi for the amendment or
for the repeal and replacement of this Constitution;
(d)
allow citizens of Malawi in accordance with its own procedure to make written
submissions to, or to be heard in person by, the Committee;
(e)
possible;
compile reports of the proposals received and circulate such reports as widely as
(f)
lay the reports before Parliament for such period not being less than thirty days before
taking action under paragraph (g) as would be reasonably sufficient for responses to be received; and
(g)
to prepare a Bill or Bills for the amendment of this Constitution or, as provided in
subsection (5), a Bill for the repeal and replacement of this Constitution and every such Bill shall be a
separate Bill of its own, entitled a Bill to amend the Constitution or, as the case may be, a Bill to repeal
and replace the Constitution, and to present such Bill or Bills to Parliament on its own motion.
(5) On the basis of the extensiveness of the proposals for amendments to this Constitution,
Parliament may repeal and replace this Constitution during the period of provisional application, but no
such repeal shall be made before, or in contradiction to the resolution of, the national conference
referred to under section (4) (b).
(6) Within thirty days before the expiry of the period of provisional application, Parliament shall
pass an Act by which this Constitution (with the amendments, if any, made to it under this section) or
another Constitution replacing this Constitution shall be brought definitively into force on the expiry of
the provisional period of application.