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By Mabvuto Banda

BLANTYRE, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Malawi police and anti-corruption officials raided the house of a judge just hours after he ruled against President Bingu wa Mutharika in a row over the budget and the poaching of opposition lawmakers.

Monday night's raid came after High Court Judge Joseph Mwanyungwe issued an injunction allowing the opposition controlled parliament to ignore wa Mutharika's order that it reconvene to debate and pass his $1.2 billion budget bill.

The United Democratic Front and the Malawi Congress Party, the two main opposition parties, have refused to pass a budget until a dispute over the poaching of their members by wa Mutharika's ruling Democratic Progressive Party is resolved.

The Malawian president has accused the judiciary of working with the opposition against his government.

"We suspect they did this (the raid) because of the injunction he gave to the opposition stopping parliament from meeting," Fahad Assani, the judge's lawyer, said on Tuesday.

Joseph Chimatilo, a spokesman for the Anti-Corruption Bureau which participated in the raid with police, confirmed it had occurred but refused to disclose details on the investigation.

The budget debate, which should have been concluded by June 30, was indefinitely suspended last month, leaving the government to run on a monthly skeleton budget and threatening to cut off essential services to Malawi's 12 million people.

One of the poorest nations in the world, Malawi in southern Africa relies on aid from industrialised nations and international agencies.

Donors have praised wa Mutharika for improving the country's financial health and offered it billions in debt relief.

But the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Malawi said last month political wrangling over the budget was hurting the poor, many of whom live on less than $1 a day.

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