Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) United States of America (USA) Wing has endorsed former Malawi President Arthur Peter Mutharika as DPP Presidential candidate for 2025 elections.
In an interview on Tuesday, interim chairperson for DPP-USA wing Joseph Mandala asked all DPP members to rally behind Professor Mutharika in order to win the 2025 polls.
Mandala said Professor Mutharika, who is a lawyer by profession, has the track record that outperforms any competitor, including the incumbent President Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi Congress Party (MCP).
“Although DPP has very capable presidential aspirants, we believe His Excellency Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika has the mental, physical, and incumbent capacity to win against any other competitors who offers him or herself for the presidency during the general elections in 2025,” said Mandala.
He further said: “For example, we can compare performance of the two major political parties in Malawi we now have owing to the 50%+1 electoral system. After the DPP defeated Joyce Banda and her PP, we noticed the economic fundamentals returned on track under the leadership of His Excellency Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika and the DPP. The DPP left the economic fundamentals on track.”
“Today, after APM and the DPP left the office, we noticed a significant difference between the achievements of the two major parties, MCP and DPP. There is indisputable evidence that now under President Chakwera and MCP, all economic fundamentals and indicators of national development are completely off-track.”
He then tipped the former governing DPP to focus on articulating vision for Malawi and map its manifesto to its founding vision.
Mandala also called upon DPP to engage in practical campaign without the lies that “characterize President Chakwera and MCP promises”.
Mutharika, who was President of Malawi from May 2014 to June 2020, recently said he will contest during the 2025 presidential polls to address economic challenges the country is facing under his successor President Chakwera.
The former Malawian leader said since he was voted out in the court-sanctioned fresh presidential election in June 2020, most Malawians have become poor due to continued rising prices of goods and services in the country.
DPP, according to its Secretary General Clement Mwale, will hold an elective conference on July this year ahead of next year’s presidential elections with all positions up for grabs.
Mwale told Nation Newspaper that DPP’s National Governing Council (NGC) will soon meet to set the date for the much awaited elective conference.
He added that the party will create a level playing ground for all candidates regardless of his current status in the party.
“Nobody is going to be restricted and our constitution guarantees everyone freedom of campaigning and at any position he or she wants to aspire,” said Mwale as quoted by Nation Newspaper.
Apart from Professor Mutharika, other DPP’s presidential aspirants are former Reserve Bank of Malawi Governor Dalitso Kabambe and former cabinet Ministers Bright Msaka and Joseph Mwanamvekha.
