By Pemphero Malimba:
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) says its President Peter Mutharika is fit to undertake the party’s activities ahead of the 2025 general elections.
Since the party’s elective convention held in August this year, the former State President has come out once to address a rally in Mzuzu.
Only some of the party’s leaders have been on the ground holding several political activities including rallies across the country.
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On the sidelines of a press briefing which opposition political parties held this week to express their reservations regarding the electoral process towards the elections next year, we asked DPP spokesperson Shadric Namalomba about Mutharika’s public inactivity since the convention.
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Namalomba said the party values its regional leaders, hence allowing them to be presiding over party events.
“Our president, His Excellency Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika, is ready to undertake rallies throughout the country.
“By the way, we have leaders in all the regions and that is what you see. At the right time the president will come out and have his massive rallies everywhere,” he said.
A political commentator George Chaima said Mutharika’s disappearance from the public domain would deflate some people’s confidence in him.
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Chaima said it would be vital for Mutharika to come out and show Malawians that he could be their right choice come the elections next year.
“The way Professor Mutharika is doing at the moment, disappearing from the public domain in terms of conducting rallies, is denying Malawians from knowing what Mutharika has to offer to Malawians.
“Malawians may want to have full confidence in him. They would want to see him on the ground and attest to his fitness for the 2025 elections,” Chaima said.
But he also said it might be that Mutharika is reserving energy for the gruelling race ahead.
“So I should believe that his disappearance from public rallies is something that is giving him momentum to regain energy and maybe to have time to rest. Sometimes we have to accept the facts and come to terms with reality,” he said.
Another commentator, Wonderful Mkhutche, doubted whether Mutharika would stand the pressure of the election campaign.
“He was made presidential candidate for DPP for other reasons, and being physically fit for the campaign was not one of the reasons.
“DPP knows this and the strategy of the campaign will be covering up for times and places where Peter Mutharika will not be available,” he said.
But in an interview on Times Exclusive early this year, Mutharika said he knows himself and is fit for the challenge.
“I know the body that I am in. If it was otherwise, I would not do things to embarrass myself and our party,” said Mutharika, 84.
The country is to hold elections in September 2025.
The first phase of voter registration is in progress, with official campaign period to be announced next year.
