Malawi’s 79 years-old President Mutharika says he’s ‘a youth’: Very fit to continue ruling

President Peter Mutharika  has said he was not stepping down and that there was no one with his political stature who could immediately take over from him within the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and that he will run in the 2019 elections for his final five-years term.

Mutharika , now at 79 years and will be octogenarian at 81  during the 2019 polls, said he was very firm and strong to continue being at the helm of the country.

“These days, people want to be youthful. Some peope, who are 50, 60 and 70, call themselves, youths. So I am also a youth,” said Mutharika on Saturday evening at Katoto Roundabout on his arrival in the region where he is expected to carry out a number of official duties.

“Remember I am a European Union Champion for the youth; so I am a youth,” he added.

Afrobarometer, an African led, non-partisan research network in a nationwide survey conducted by the Centre for Social Research at Chancellor College, a constituent college of the University of Malawi (Unima), which indicates that 80 percent of Malawians do not want  presidential  candidates who are 70 years old and above.

However, DPP spokesperson Francis Kasaila, struck a defiant tone saying President Mutharika is likely to win the 2019 presidential elections.

Apart from Katoto Roundabout in Mzuzu, President Mutharika also spoke to people who gathered at Mponela in Dowa and at Jenda in Mzimba.