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2008 harmonised elections - Index of articles
Mugabe
to face polls challenge from ex-minister
Mail & Guardian (SA)
February
05, 2008
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=331511&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/
Zimbabwe's former
finance minister, Simba Makoni, a senior member of the ruling Zanu-PF
party, announced on Tuesday that he would challenge President Robert
Mugabe as an independent in elections next month.
"Following very
extensive and intensive consultations with party members and activists
countrywide, and also with others outside the party, I have accepted
the call and hereby advise the people of Zimbabwe that I offer myself
as candidate for the office of president," Makoni told a press conference.
"Let me confirm
that I share the agony and anguish of all citizens over the extreme
hardships that we all have endured for nearly 10 years now," added
Makoni, who was Mugabe's finance minister from 2000 to 2004.
"I also share
the widely held view that these hardships are a result of failure
of national leadership and that change at that level is a pre-requisite
for change at other levels of national endeavour."
Mugabe, who has
ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980, is hoping
to secure a sixth term in office at joint parliamentary and presidential
elections on March 29.
The announcement
by the widely respected Makoni comes after the breakdown of talks
between the two factions of the main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change designed to agree on a joint candidate to take on 83-year-old
Mugabe.
Since Makoni left
office, Zimbabwe's economy has been on a dramatic downward spiral
and it now has an annual inflation rate of more than 26 000%, the
highest in the world. Unemployment also stands at about 80%.
His name had been
sometimes touted as a possible challenger to Mugabe from within
the ranks of the Zanu-PF but the veteran president was confirmed
as the party's candidate at its annual conference last December.
-- AFP
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