Posted on 09/25/2006 1:03:06 AM PDT by MadIvan
President Robert Mugabe sought to extend his rule for another four years yes>terday when his regime announced that Zimbabwe's next presidential election will be postponed.
Mr Mugabe's present term of office ends in 2008. But the 82-year-old leader, who won a violent and widely condemned presidential election four years ago, is about to rewrite the constitution and give himself the option of staying in power beyond this limit.
The next presidential poll will be delayed until 2010, on the pretext that parliamentary elections are also due in that year and the two contests should be harmonised.
Nathan Shamuyarira, the official spokesman for the ruling Zanu-PF party and a former cabinet minister, disclosed the plan to the Sunday News, a government paper.
"We want to combine the two, the presidential and parliamentary elections, so that we do not have elections every two years," he said.
A Bill will be presented before parliament to bring this into effect, added Mr Shamuyarira. To change the electoral calendar would require changing the constitution but the ruling party, with a technical two thirds majority in parliament, can pass such amendments easily.
After 26 years of absolute power, Mr Mugabe is already the oldest leader in Africa. If he retired in 2010, he would be 86 and would have been in office for 30 years. Mugabe's previous hints that he might go in 2008 were ambiguous and analysts say the veteran Zimbabwean leader has been keeping his options open.
His bitterly divided opponents, who have failed to make a stand against his regime, united to condemn his plan to stay in power.
Jonathan Moyo, who was sacked as information minister last year and sits as an opposition MP, said that Mr Mugabe wanted to stay in office rather than face justice for crimes against humanity.
Arthur Mutambara, the leader of one faction of the fragmented Movement for Democratic Change, said the president had "inflicted misery, poverty and repression" and should "resign immediately".
Political analysts say Mr Mugabe and Zanu-PF fear an electoral challenge amid a deepening economic crisis many blame on them, and they may hope a delay would allow time for recovery.
The health sector, in particular, is struggling to function amid the crisis, which has brought shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency along with water and power cuts and an inflation rate of more than 1,200 per cent.
Zimbabwe has lost half of its public health professionals in the past few years and is the African country hardest hit by a "brain drain" driven largely by economic hardship, a state newspaper, the Sunday Mail, reported yesterday.
An estimated three million Zimbabweans — a quarter of the population — have emigrated.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
Mugabe is de facto president for life and the army and police, backed up by the "war veterans" and the brown bombers, will make sure of it.
He has to keep up with Chavez, but I would personally love to see Mugabe's life end very soon.
Mugabe should die so the people of Zimbabwe can live.
Ahh, Idi Amin, I wondered what became of you. Just more proof that there is NO despot like an African despot.
Amin, who had converted to Islam, fled with his family to Saudi Arabia, where he was allowed peacefully to live out the rest of his life.
The excuse of the Saudis for protecting this mass murderer was that "he had children." It did not protect any of his estimated 300,000 victims.
The Saudis are a strange bunch. Islam and hypocrisy: perfect together.
I'd still like to know why and how these murderous dictators like him and castro keep hanging on for so stinkin' long.
I suspect the West is partially to blame. Despite wrecking the economy, rendering his country's currency worthless, and destroying its agricultural base, he has managed to keep his army's loyalty and brutally punish any dissent.
How does he do it, and why are we to blame? By controlling the food supply. Donated food aid never reaches the masses, Mugabe diverts it to his own people. Without this, Mugabe's regime would have toppled long ago.
Just MHO...
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