Former Malawi President Arthur Peter Mutharika will not be on the ballot for the 2025 elections. According to alleged reports from his daughters, Moyenda and Monique Mutharika—both successful lawyers living in the United States—their father is said to be stepping aside because of poor health and old age.
The two are said to have privately shared with close family and senior Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials that their father’s health can no longer carry the heavy pressure of another election campaign. “We know people love and trust our father, but it’s now time to let him rest and focus on his health,” they are alleged to have said.
They also reportedly plan to take the 84-year-old former president to the US for further medical attention.
This follows Mutharika’s recent return from South Africa where he had allegedly gone for treatment. Despite arriving at Chileka Airport looking visibly frail and weak, DPP spin doctors tried to paint him as strong and energetic. But as the old saying goes, you can’t cover a pregnant belly with a hand—Malawians saw the truth with their own eyes.
Now, panic is setting in inside DPP circles. Many of the party’s younger hardline members—nicknamed “cadets”—had pinned their hopes on Mutharika staging a comeback. Even more worrying is the party’s selfish plan: they reportedly wanted both the presidential candidate and running mate to come from their own group, leaving nothing for any alliance partners. That kind of greed, say analysts, is like cooking alone and refusing to even share the smell.
Political observers believe the reason DPP didn’t want to pick a running mate from another party is because they feared the obvious: that with Mutharika’s age, the presidency could suddenly pass to the vice president if nature takes its course—as it does for all of us eventually.
They haven’t forgotten what happened in 2004, when Bingu wa Mutharika ran on a UDF ticket and later dumped the party once in power.
Meanwhile, President Lazarus Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party remains the only serious contender in the race and is reportedly in strong alliance talks with UDF’s Atupele Muluzi.
Of the 14 candidates who have collected nomination papers so far, many are seen as jokers, relics of the past, or social media politicians without real ground support.
As September 2025 draws near, it’s becoming clear: this election will be a showdown where President Chakwera is set to trample over a field crowded with presidential pretenders.
