In a striking personal admission, the senior party figure revealed that even he — as Secretary General of the MCP — regularly sits in the backbenches himself. “It doesn’t mean I’m not important,” he declared firmly, brushing off any suggestion that seating position reflects political standing. “Sitting on the backbenches in Parliament does not mean a Member of Parliament is useless or unimportant,” Chimwendo Banda declared firmly. There are no parliamentary regulations that support penalizing or marginalizing MPs by shifting their seats over personal political expressions,” he said. Chimwendo Banda reiterated that every elected representative, regardless of where they physically sit within the chamber, carries an equal constitutional mandate to represent their constituents and contribute meaningfully to debates shaping the nation’s future.