This comes when almost all the district councils have elected new district council chairpersons who will serve offices for the next 12 months.

MALGA executive director, Hadrod Mkandawire says due to different level of education and understanding things, the Local Government Amendment Bill needs to provide for a longer learning curve for the council chairpersons.

"Possibly now let's move maybe to two and half years. We are looking at different levels of understanding their roles for them to perform to the expectations," Mkandawire said.

Mkandawire has observed that though time was limited, many immediate-past chairpersons have performed exceptionally in helping the councils to embrace innovations, to be resilient to shocks amid financial constraints and natural disasters.

Centre for Social Accountability (CSAT) executive director, Willy Kambwandira has supported proposal for the extension.

"We would recommend to the ministry of local government to consider amending some the laws for the council chairpersons to make sure that they stay in office a little longer so that they can fulfil their plans," he proposed.

Earlier, MALGA had pushed for the tabling of the Local Government Amendment Bill of 2022 and among others, it proposed that the appointing powers to vote for council chairpersons be reviewed, by removing voting powers from members of parliament.

In the past, the council chairpersons were serving for five years, but it was amended to one year in 2010.