By Edwin Mauluka

After facing weeks of discrimination based on age, former president Peter Mutharika has hit back at critics questioning his age and fitness to lead, insisting he remains active and ready for another five-year term if elected.

“Someone was saying that I will resign within a month if elected president. That’s madness,” the 85-year-old Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) leader told a rally in Lilongwe on Saturday. “I have been working for the last five years building the party, waking up as early as 5:00 A.M. every day.”

Mutharika dismissed suggestions he would step aside as “Nyapaphi,” a local term for an irresponsible person. “Let me assure you,” he said. “I will run for the next five years and by the end of the term this country shall be transformed.”

His remarks followed stinging criticism from UTM secretary general Patricia Kaliati, an adviser to presidential hopeful Dalitso Kabambe, who branded Mutharika a “granny” and accused the DPP of “elder abuse” for allowing him to contest, adding that Mutharika would be succeeded by his running mate Jane Ansah, 69.

While political rivals have made Mutharika’s age a campaign weapon, his re-emergence on the campaign trail has taken some by surprise as he continues to draw sizable crowds at rallies after a brief period away from public view.

At the same event, senior DPP member George Saonda challenged Kaliati and Kabambe to“focus on what they intend to do for the country and not hurl personal insults.”

Mutharika also sought to shift the debate to Malawi’s economy, saying “Malawi is on the third position on the list of poor countries in the world” and blaming UTM — which partnered with the governing Malawi Congress Party in the 2020 court-ordered presidential rerun — for today’s economic hardships.

The 2020 Constitutional Court ruling that nullified Mutharika’s reelection also introduced the 50%+1 rule, requiring a candidate to secure an outright majority to win. Mutharika told supporters he preferred a decisive first-round victory, saying Malawi is too poor to afford costly runoff elections. He urged the supporters to vote.

The DPP has since entered into an electoral alliance with the Alliance for Democracy (Aford), National Development Party (NDP) and Liberation for Economic Freedom Party (LEFP) as it seeks to return to power in the September 16, 2025 polls.

The party held power under Peter Mutharika from 2014 to 2019, having earlier governed from 2004. Following the death of his elder brother, Bingu wa Mutharika in 2012, the presidency was assumed by then–Vice President Joyce Banda, who is also among the 17 candidates in the current presidential race.