If the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) insists on fielding the octogenarian former President Peter Mutharika as its Presidential candidate for the 2025 elections, they should brace themselves for a crushing defeat by the ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) under the leadership of President Lazarus Chakwera. This stark warning comes from the renowned political analyst, Lyson Sibande.
According to Sibande, “APM does not carry himself as a politician who is in any way preparing to win elections. I mean, he will have to unseat a government, but less than 12 months to elections, the guy is always very quiet and hiding at Page House in Mangochi. He behaves like a typical retiree not someone in active service.”
Sibande’s unsolicited advice is that if the DPP is serious about 2025 elections, they must pull a Joe Biden on him and they must now allow him to stand.
“DPP needs a candidate who is desperate for power. Someone who is desperate to win and will do anything to win. APM failed to campaign in 2020, and he is clearly not ready to campaign now. He is old and has been president already. As a result, he is psychologically not well motivated to get power because he loses nothing if he loses elections,” argues the analyst.
However, Sibande hit the bull’s eye when he noted that the DPP problem is that the party is scared to replace APM.
“But you know what, DPP has collapsed under APM’s watch since he took over from Bingu in 2012. The party has failed to grow because of APMs leadership style. As a matter of fact, APM lost government twice and got DPP shoved to the Opposition. First, in 2012 when Bingu died, APM had taken control of DPP but lost government to Joyce Banda. DPP moved to the Opposition because APM could not find a political solution with Joyce Banda to keep DPP in power. A solution could have been there but APM failed to find it. Second was in 2020. DPP was shoved to the Opposition after winning the 2019 elections because APM had lost control of institutions and actors that matter for an administration to stay in power,” argued Sibande saying the reason why APM lost power is because he is “a poor political leader.”
Sibande warned that if DPP maintains APM, then they risk having “a campaign without energy. A boring campaign. A campaign without presence and inspiration.”
The analyst issued a sterner warning that going by the way the MCP is doing its politics, DPP was heading for an embarrassing loss next year.
