Chakwera says Chilima will be Malawi deputy president not VP: ‘Proper second-in command’

Tonse Alliance presidential torchbearer Lazarus Chakwera has said if he ascends to power in the fresh elections, he will make his running mate Saulos Chilima as deputy president and not vice president to ensure that   the country for the first time should have an empowered second-in-command.

Chakwera, who is also Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president  leading the nine-party Tonse Alliance, said this on Friday, during a whistle-stop campaign tour in Lilongwe rural hinterland, the stronghold of MCP.

He said the Office of the Vice-President in the country is a delegated one, an arrangement that has seen Vice-Presidents, including Chilima, sidelined or victimised by the political system.

But Chakwera said that Chilima will be “deputy president, a proper second-in-command that when the President leaves the country he automatically is acting president.”

The empowerment arrangement of Chakwera-Chilima pact also entails that  Chilima —who is also UTM Party president— will also serve as minister of Finance and responsible for public sector reforms.

Chakwera said Chilima is someone Malawi needs to improve public service delivery.

“He is someone we need to head the public sector reforms to develop Malawi.”

Chakwera reiterated their alliance’s promises to the electorate, including fighting corruption, revamping the public sector, job creation, economic empowerment of the youth and women and transforming agriculture, among others.