The Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) has said Second Vice-President-designate Enoch Chihana will take his oath after President Peter Mutharika appoints the full Cabinet.
Chief Secretary Justin Saidi said in an interview on Sunday that the date for Chihana’s swearing-in is yet to be set, but it will be designated in due course.
“We will advise the public once everything is ready. Now I cannot say when that will be, because he will be sworn in along with a set of other ministers,” he said.
On October 7, the OPC issued a statement indicating that Chihana would be sworn-in on October 8 along with a team of 11 initial appointees comprising three Cabinet ministers and senior government officials that Mutharika appointed on October 5, a day after his inauguration.
But Chihana, whose Alliance for Democracy (Aford) partnered the governing Democratic Progressive Party under the Blue Alliance banner in the September 16 General Election, did not take oath of office on October 8.
In a separate interview, Aford spokesperson Annie Amatullah Maluwa said the party was waiting to hear from government on the date and venue of Chihana’s swearing-in.
However, she said the information the party got last week was that the details of the ceremony would be known this week.
“As a party we are preparing for the event. It is a big day for the party and the country,” said Maluwa.
She said the combination of Mutharika, First Vice-President Jane Ansah and Chihana is set to benefit Malawians and the nation at large.
Mutharika on October 5 2025 appointed Chihana as Second Vice-President to honour an agreement that Aford and DPP made as part of the Blue Alliance conditions.
The appointment of Second Vice-President is based on Section 80(5) of the Constitution which allows the President to appoint a person into that office where he “considers it desirable in the national interest so to do”. The law further states that the appointee should be from an opposition political party.
Unlike the First Vice-President who is elected alongside the President, the Second Vice-President can be fired from the position.
Enoch Chihana is the second person to be appointed second vice-president. His father, the late Thom Chakufwa Chihana, also served in that capacity during the Bakili Muluzi administration.
