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Outcry from opposition as Mugabe gives himself extra time in power
Peta Thornycroft
September 25, 2006

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/25/wzim25.xml

President Robert Mugabe sought to extend his rule for another four years yesterday 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.

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