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Tsvangirai to launch presidential campaign in September
Batsirayi Muranje and Hendricks Chizhanje, ZimOnline
July 30, 2007

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=1763

HARARE - Zimbabwe's main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Sunday said his party will launch its campaign for next year's presidential and parliamentary elections in September.

Addressing about 10 000 party supporters at a rally in Harare's working class suburb of Kuwadzana, Tsvangirai said the launch will send a clear message to President Robert Mugabe that his days in office are numbered.

"We are launching our campaign in September and we should all come in our thousands to send a clear message to the dictatorship that we are tired of tyranny," said Tsvangirai.

The Zimbabwe opposition leader came close to unseating Mugabe in the last presidential election in 2002 that he lost by about 400 000 votes. Most western election observers dismissed the controversial election as fraudulent.

"The nation should know that we are ready to govern. We are ready to serve the people and all we are saying is that we want a level playing field ahead of the polls.

"Militias, soldiers and police officers should serve the people and should refrain from being used to rig the people's wishes," said Tsvangirai.

The firebrand former trade union leader also took a swipe at the government's decision to impose price controls saying the policy that has seen hundreds of business leaders and managers arrested for defying the directive on prices was ad hoc and was meant to buy votes ahead of the elections.

"Mugabe is putting patches to try and mend the economy. But you can't run a government through crisis management," he said.

Tsvangirai repeated his party's demands for an even electoral playing field before the elections.

"There are a lot of first-time voters who are being disenfranchised. We are saying let these elections be free and fair. If Mugabe wins in a free and fair election I will be the first one to congratulate him," said Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai, who spoke a day after rival faction leader Arthur Mutambara called him "a weak and indecisive leader," called for a united front to dislodge ZANU PF from power.

"We need unity of purpose among all progressive forces. The enemy is not Morgan Tsvangirai. The enemy is Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF. If you focus on Tsvangirai you are wasting time," Tsvangirai said.

Mutambara, who heads a smaller faction of the opposition party, said at the weekend that efforts to reunite the party had hit a dead end. Mutambara accused Tsvangirai of spurning his party's call for a coalition to take on Mugabe.

The MDC is now a shadow of its former self after a damaging split in
2005 over strategy to unseat Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain 27 years ago.

Political analysts say a divided opposition risks handing electoral victory to Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party on a silver platter in next year's key elections. - ZimOnline

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