PRESIDENT Mugabe . . . to represent ZANU PF in elections

By Simplisio Chirinda 

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU PF party will endorse President Robert Mugabe as candidate in next year’s presidential election at an extraordinary congress in December, party legal affairs secretary Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Friday. 

Briefing journalists in Harare after a meeting of ZANU PF’s central committee held to adopt the agenda for the extraordinary congress, Mnangagwa said party rules required that Mugabe - elected party leader by the last ordinary congress in 2004 – remains candidate for next year’s presidential race. 

“The party elected a leader in 2004 who essentially was going to be the candidate for president and that position is still binding,” said Mnangagwa, in response to a journalist’s question whether the December conference would choose a new presidential candidate for ZANU PF. 

“Essentially the December congress is going to endorse this candidate,” added Mnangagwa, among senior ZANU PF politicians eyeing Mugabe’s job in the event he decides to step down. 

Zimbabwe holds joint presidential and parliamentary elections next year. Mugabe, who earlier this year said there was no vacancy for his position, has said he will stand for re-election next year and no one in ZANU PF has openly challenged him. 

But there has been speculation that a faction led by powerful retired army general Solomon Mujuru – that has been pushing for a new leader to be chosen - could nominate a surprise challenger to Mugabe at the December congress. 

The Mujuru faction last December successfully blocked Mugabe’s bid to extend his rule to 2010 without going to the ballot but the veteran leader made an about turn and offered himself to stand in next year’s elections. 

Under Mugabe’s charge, Zimbabwe has declined from being one of Africa’s most vibrant economies to being a classical African basket case surviving on food handouts from international relief agencies. 

In addition to confirming Mugabe’s candidature, the ZANU PF December congress will also discuss the government’s agricultural mechanisation programme aimed at boosting farm production and end hunger stalking the southern African country since Mugabe’s controversial seizure of white-owned land for redistribution to blacks. 

The conference will also ratify the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill Number 18 passed by Parliament in August with support from the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party. 

The Bill, awaiting Mugabe’s signature to become effective law, paves the way for the veteran President to pick a successor should he decides to quit office. - ZimOnline