In Malawi, election season always comes with drama. But nothing beats the grand charade staged by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Thursday when they tried to parade former president Arthur Peter Mutharika (APM) as a crowd-puller.
Buses, lorries, and minibuses were seen ferrying people from districts across the Southern Region, Thyolo, Mulanje, Blantyre, Balaka, Mangochi, Chiradzulu, and Machinga, straight to Lilongwe. The mission? To create an illusion that APM still commands national popularity.
The irony was striking. Instead of genuine local supporters lining up along his route, hired crowds were transported hundreds of kilometers to greet him.
Even his own neighborhood at Page House in Mangochi didn’t get a single soul to bid him farewell. Nor did Mangochi Boma, Liwonde in Machinga, or Balaka. Why? Because the party machinery couldn’t afford to “station” hired supporters in every stop-over.
One of the image grabs after the Biwi Triangle APM’s stop-over
It was a staged show of numbers. Nothing more, nothing less.
One supposedly DPP supporter came from as far as Mulanje and told our reporter: “Initially the plan was that we are dropped in different spots along Mangochi-Lilongwe route via Balaka but it proved that it will not be possible, hence the decision to have only two critical points, Ntcheu and Biwi Triangle in Lilongwe.”
He said most of those “hired mourners” were paid between 2,000 and 5,000 kwacha.
“Like myself, I was given 3,000 kwacha which they were saying is for our food while we will be given more when we go back home,” he added as he wondered around Biwi Triangle waiting for the truck that brought him into Lilongwe.
Inside the DPP camp, strategists know the truth. But instead of facing it, they continue to package a false narrative for their aging leader. They present him with lorries full of the same faces, shuttled from rally to rally, as evidence of national support.
What they forget is simple. In Malawi, every citizen has only one vote. No matter how many times one supporter is moved from Mangochi to Balaka to Lilongwe, their ballot still counts once. This means the “huge crowds” APM is shown are merely recycled bodies, not fresh voters.
While the DPP engineers this political theatre, Malawians are not fooled.
Ordinary citizens see through the deception. They know that a leader relying on ferried crowds is not one commanding real loyalty, but one being shielded from the truth by his inner circle.
Compare this with President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera and the Malawi Congress Party (MCP).
Chakwera’s rallies continue to attract genuine crowds across all regions, without the need for lorries or hired praise singers. That’s the difference between organic support and a fabricated spectacle.
Yes, the DPP strategists were “clever” in making sure their scarce resources produced one big show in Lilongwe, rather than spreading thin across multiple stopovers. But it was cleverness built on sand, a political illusion that risks backfiring when Malawians cast their ballots next month.
Because in the end, voters are not impressed by rented crowds. They are impressed by leaders who speak to their real struggles hunger, unemployment, and development.
