The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) appears to have perfected the art of running a presidential campaign by proxy.
Since the official launch of the campaign season, DPP presidential candidate Arthur Peter Mutharika has been conspicuously missing. Now sensing that time is fast closing towards the elections, the party has tasked his wife, Gertrude Mutharika, to do the campaign rounds.
It is clear that the campaign baton has been passed to her and suddenly rebranded as a political surrogate-in-chief.
On Sunday, Mangochi residents gathered in the area of Group Village Headman Mtuwa, promised to see the man whose name is on the DPP ballot, to their surprise all they had was his wife.
Gertrude stood on stage, passionately urging Malawians to vote for her husband in September. A husband who is, conveniently “around” but not “available” to the public.
The former President is currently holed in the same Mangochi District at his Page House, close enough to hear the ululations of the rally if the wind blows right, yet somehow, too frail, too tired, or perhaps too uninterested to step outside and speak for himself.
His supporters sweat under tents at rallies while he is already nursing political fatigue in air-conditioned comfort. Mutharika has become the elephant in the room, or rather, the elephant that refuses to enter the rally grounds.
So the questions are: If a presidential candidate cannot physically address his own rallies two months before the most crucial election, what exactly does the DPP think it is achieving by sending his wife to speak on his behalf? Is this a trial run for Malawi’s first “First Lady Presidency,” a case of buy one, get one free leadership?
Or are the blue faithful simply being softened to accept that the man they’re being asked to vote for may never fully appear on the campaign trail, let alone manage a five-year term in office?
What exactly does the DPP want Malawians to vote for in September? A candidate whose voice must now be channeled through his spouse?
A presidency where the campaign is outsourced? If Gertrude is the one shaking hands, giving speeches, and standing on the podium, are Malawians being warmed up to a First Lady–in-Chief scenario?
Of course, the DPP faithful will argue that Mutharika is resting, that he is “saving energy” for the bigger stages ahead. But if a man cannot walk a few meters from his Page House to greet the very people expected to vote for him, what miracle of endurance will carry him through five years of State House business?
The DPP hierarchy, of course, continues to treat Malawians as though they are blind to this charade. They want voters to cheer for a name, not a man. They want the optics of a campaign without the presence of the candidate. They want to borrow the body of a spouse to mask the frailty of a husband. But politics is not a family business, and elections are not won through delegation.
Gertrude’s speech, in support of Mangochi North-East candidate Overton Imedi, carried the usual rhetoric of party loyalty and promises of “better days under APM.” But even her best efforts could not disguise the glaring truth: the candidate she was selling has become more of a ghost figure than a living leader.
If anything, this spectacle risks backfiring. Every rally led by Gertrude is a reminder that Peter Mutharika cannot do it himself. Every cheer for her presence is a silent question about his absence. And every time she urges voters to trust her husband’s leadership, it feels less like campaigning and more like wishful thinking.
One has to wonder whether the DPP is genuinely campaigning for APM, or whether what we are witnessing is a slow, subtle introduction of a new figurehead.
Is this really about Mutharika, or about the people who stand behind him, holding up his political body like pallbearers carrying a fragile casket?
At the end of the day, the image is stark: the presidential candidate in hiding, the wife on stage, and the voters being asked to clap for a ghost. If this is the DPP’s grand strategy, then maybe their slogan should be updated: “Vote for Mutharika—even if you never see him.”
Because if the candidate cannot be physically seen and rise to address the people now, how on earth will he rise to lead the nation tomorrow?
