Of APM, ‘no-hope’ candidates and DPP convention

Folks, the former ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is very confused after digesting the fact that some of its preferred 2025 presidential aspirants are politically ‘very weak’ and they may not even win at the forthcoming DPP convention on their own without riding on the back of some ‘big blue elephant’.

DPP’S Northern Region Committee subtly confirmed the dilemma this week, suggesting that no one else can unify and lead DPP to a triumphant 2025 presidential race except its current president and strongman Arthur Peter Mutharika (APM), who has been resting at his lakeshore mansion since losing government in the 2020 Fresh Presidential Elections.

According to DPP vice-president for the North, Goodall Gondwe, party officials in the region want APM to bounce back because only he can end loyalty divisions that emerged after some party members showed interest to succeed Mutharika at the yet-to-be-scheduled DPP convention.

Of course, APM himself has only said on many platforms that he is still considering many requests from Malawians, including chiefs to be on the ballot again in the next election. He says he will announce his decision once he makes one.

But you must also understand that this confusion in DPP started after one of its former spokespersons declared in September 2020 that APM, now 82, will not be DPP’s presidential candidate in 2025 “as he wants to rest now” at his self-made village home in Mangochi District.

DPP later accused this person, who has worked with all regimes starting with the original Ngwazi’s, of being a sellout and working with political enemies of the blue camp.

Now, the point I want to make is this… in DPP there are currently some people who mean well for the party and those that want it to perish even before the next general election and Goodall may be right to say that the more candidates the party has, the more divided it will be ahead of 2025. We have already witnessed bad-mouthing and fistfights between some members of this once mighty party that belong to factions created by rival candidates.

I also do not rule out that this ‘APM ayimanso’ crusade, which will sooner or later be echoed by other DPP committees in the Central and Southern regions, as well as other influential people in the party, could be a well-calculated strategy by the party’s central committee to put wool in the eyes of some aspirants so they can step aside to allow someone favoured by the broader party leadership to take before or after the convention.

I must also state here that APM has said on many occasions that he has no candidate in mind to support, he has even denied allegations that he is grooming one of the candidates to succeed him, claiming that as a Democrat he would leave party supporters to choose their next leader at the convention.

Whether this means him or not only time will tell, but APM has further hinted at the right candidate who can manage Malawi’s economy as the only hope that can bring DPP back in government, not a ‘brute’. Whatever the meaning of that, but from where I sit, I can see that one or two or three aspirants who seem to be enjoying sympathy from the party’s most influential leaders are not actively popular on the ground.

However, there is one contender who is somewhat politically powerful in my view, not as powerful as APM, but he cannot be compared to the rest of the wannabe DPP presidents. His only challenge is that he seems to be not in favour of the party’s nerves and poses a big threat to the chances of the ‘preferred candidate(s)’ at the convention.

The country’s constitution does not bar APM from seeking office again in 2025 because he only served one five-year term. But his emerging endorsements by Goodall and others seem very systematic and one can mistake the crusade for a divide-and-rule political game aimed at ensuring that one ‘less popular’ aspirant(s) rides on the back of an elephant and wins the leadership vote by proxy during the convention while frustrating the other seemingly powerful candidate(s) who do not enjoy same favour from the party’s top leaders.