For weeks since the 2025 elections campaign was launched, former President Arthur Peter Mutharika has been missing from the public eye, leaving his wife Gertrude and Jane Ansah, running mate, to sell his presidency while he remained holed up at Page House.
But now, under pressure from within the DPP and with senior party officials pushing for a medical fitness test and threatening court action to prove that he is well, APM has been forced to hit the road this weekend.
Now, all eyes will be on him, not for his promises, but for proof that he can still stand, speak, and survive the campaign heat.
The DPP has announced that its “ghost” candidate will this weekend stagger onto the campaign trail for the first time, in what party insiders admit is a desperate move to silence growing doubts about his health.
According to DPP spokesperson Shadreck Namalomba, Mutharika’s outing this weekend marks the beginning of his nationwide rallies with the campaign tour starting in the Northern Region.
“We will release the full program of rallies by Wednesday,” Namalomba said.
The absence of the 86-year-old on the campaign trail, left Malawians wondering as to why the man seeking the presidency couldn’t face the very people he wants to govern. Instead, it is his wife, Gertrude, who has been shoved onto the campaign, urging Malawians on his behalf to vote for her husband while he was holed at his Page House residence.
That bizarre arrangement only fueled speculation: is the DPP selling Malawians a candidate—or a family franchise?
According to inside sources, some senior party members have been pushing Mutharika and his inner circle to subject him to medical tests to certify his fitness. The pressure has reportedly been so intense that a faction within the party threatened to take the matter to court if Mutharika’s health status remained concealed.
Under Section 83(4) of Malawi’s Constitution, a sitting president may be removed from office if declared by a two-thirds majority of the National Assembly to be incapable of performing duties due to physical or mental incapacity, a process that requires independent medical evidence.
Although Mutharika is currently not in office, the constitutional provision has been repeatedly cited by concerned members to highlight the importance of health and fitness in the presidency.
But Mutharika’s inner circle that include his wife, Norman “Pythius Hiwa” Chisale, and Peter Mukhito, have been fighting tooth and nail to shield him from such scrutiny.
Sources say it is this powerful trio that has now ordered Mutharika onto the campaign trail, not out of political strategy, but as a “showpiece” to prove he is still alive and kicking.
This weekend’s rallies will therefore be more than just politics; they will be a public health inspection. Malawians will be watching every cough, every stumble, every pause in speech, to decide whether the man who once ruled them is physically capable of doing it again.
Political analyst George Chaima has already warned that relying on opinion polls while hiding from the people is “political suicide.”
Another analyst, Wonderful Mkhutche, said Mutharika’s history of low-energy campaigns will no longer cut it: “This time Malawians need to see him, live and direct.”
For now, one thing is clear. The DPP has turned its campaign into a reality show where the big attraction is not policies, but whether its presidential candidate can walk, talk, and wave without collapsing.
