They are not yet done, so far as I can tell. Section 65, by the way, has not yet been acted upon by Speaker Henry Chimunthu Banda. This is the jamboree that will show the remaining few to the opposition. The JB government will be very lucky to have more than 15 MPs by the end of the year, if less.

Chimunthu Banda, who, by some accounts, harbours presidential ambitions of his own, may not hesitate to declare a few seats vacant. The affected MPs, already hoping to offer themselves for re-election, can ill-afford a sudden loss of salary, so they would rather dump the government benches for the opposition.

All this comedy of errors could have been avoided if only our politics were based on principles.