As the 2025 presidential campaign window officially swings open, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) is sprinting full-throttle, marching across the country with roaring manifestos, stadium-filling crowds, and a candidate who actually speaks, walks, and breathes on cue.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Nyambadwe, tucked behind thick curtains and guarded gates, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is busy producing a Netflix-level mystery series called: “Where in the World is APM?”
Forget the manifesto. Forget policy direction. The DPP’s campaign strategy seems to be a baffling PR stunt rooted in well-choreographed but poorly taken photographs and blurry birthday videos of a man who looks like he needs bed rest, not hitting the campaign trail.
Yes, you heard that right. While the entire nation is hungry for ideas, the DPP is offering grainy, underexposed, pixelated evidence that Arthur Peter Mutharika is still breathing.
On July 19, the DPP gathered not for a policy launch, not for a campaign rally, not even for a press briefing on their vision for Malawi. No, they gathered to cut a birthday cake for the 86-year-old APM, complete with plastic smiles, barely audible sound bites, and camera angles worse than a horror movie. Is it a party or a wake in disguise?
This was their attempt to assure Malawians that the man who could be Commander-in-Chief come September 16 is “healthy and strong.” But from the videos released, if strength was measured in frame rates and lighting quality, APM would already be in an ICU.
The visuals shared were so poorly done that instead of quelling rumors about APM’s health, they poured petrol on the speculation. Blurry, dark, and lacking any real activity, one would think this was footage from a hostage situation, not a birthday celebration of a presidential hopeful.
Just a few days before the birthday debacle, the DPP tried to spin a single photograph of APM meeting the U.S. Ambassador into a national PR tour.
The message was clear: “See! He’s not dead!”
But what they forgot is that meeting an ambassador is not a campaign. Malawians are not electing the next diplomat-in-chief; they want someone who can make a complete sentence on live TV without looking like they just woke up from anesthesia.
As of today, more than a week after the official campaign window was opened, APM has not addressed a single rally or even a press conference assuring Malawians of his candidacy. He hasn’t gone to Ndirande, Mzuzu, or even a single district to connect with the voters. The silence is deafening.
Compare that with President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera and the MCP.
They have launched a manifesto filled with policy reforms, institutional restructuring, economic restoration, and youth development strategies. MCP filled the Bingu National Stadium with enthusiastic supporters. They paraded their vision, not their birthdays.
Meanwhile, DPP supporters are left guessing whether their presidential candidate will even show up to campaign, or whether the entire effort will be coordinated from the Facebook account of one of APM’s handlers.
It is even baffling that on the official Facebook Page of Arthur Peter Mutharika there is dead silence on his birthday making us wonder as to who really was being celebrated during that party.
Let’s be blunt. What we are witnessing is a political party refusing to admit that their candidate is past his political, physical, and mental prime.
APM was a reluctant leader even in his healthiest days between 2014 and 2020. His presidency was marked by scandals, nepotism, and collapsing governance systems. He failed to fix anything, and danced around corruption scandals like it was a national hobby.
And now, they want to give us a re-run of the same tired ideas, packaged with more hush than a church confessional. Instead of refreshing their leadership, instead of bringing forth new blood or a revamped agenda, the DPP wants to blackmail the nation into voting for a political ghost.
To date, the DPP has not published its manifesto. They have not told Malawians how they will move the country forward after September elections. Nothing. Instead, they serve us cake and birthday balloons.
The DPP expect voters to forget their sorry reign between 2014 and 2020. Their campaign approach seems to be built around one idea: “Trust us. We’re still here.”
That’s not leadership. That’s laziness. And Malawians deserve better.
The fact that the DPP is focusing more on shielding APM from the public than presenting its campaign tells us one thing: even they know he cannot carry the party forward. But they are trapped. Trapped in nostalgia, trapped by factions, and trapped in the illusion that APM is still their strongest card.
He’s not. The emperor has no clothes and worse, he has no votes. The average Malawian is not interested in parades of frailty or denialism masquerading as strategy. The country needs leaders who are visible, audible, and above all, accountable.
Political campaigns are about engagement, vision, and energy. MCP is offering all three. UTM and other opposition groups are at least attempting to mobilize. But the DPP is giving us silence, celebration cakes, and staged photo ops. They’ve turned the entire campaign season into a game of hide and seek.
And the clock is ticking.
The DPP must respect the people of Malawi. If they are serious about September, they should either retire APM with dignity and present a capable alternative with a real agenda. Malawians are not fools. They have tasted poor governance and will not be hypnotized by birthday candles and diplomatic snapshots.
If the DPP thinks a political comeback can be staged from a dining room in Nyambadwe, they are more delusional than we feared.
