Mugabe 'to consider 2008 elections'

Zimbabwe’s ruling party leaders are to consider abandoning widely-criticised proposals to delay presidential elections until 2010, it is reported.

President Robert Mugabe, 83, now under the international spotlight because of a brutal clampdown on opposition activists, had previously suggested delaying the 2008 presidential elections to coincide with the 2010 parliamentary elections, which would effectively have extended his presidential term by two years unchallenged. Even ruling party members questioned the delay.

But the Herald newspaper, a government mouthpiece, reported that Mugabe had told a meeting of the ruling ZANU-PF’s Women’s League that there was growing consensus in the party to hold both elections next year and the issue would be discussed at a meeting of the central committee next week.

“I think the view is that 2008 is preferable. Some of our lawyers are saying this will not give problems,” Mugabe was quoted as saying, in an apparent concession to party members. “If we are going to have an election (next year), we must start organising and mobilising support now, now, now.”

The central committee meeting could be a key test of the support for Mugabe amid growing signs of rifts within his party.

Rival factions supporting the former parliamentary speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa or Vice President Joyce Muguru, whose husband is a powerful ex-army commander, are confident they can prevent another Mugabe term, according to University of Zimbabwe political analyst John Makumbe.

Muguru met South Africa’s deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ncguka at a Johannesburg hotel on Friday, according to footage screened by South African television.

South Africa is spearheading the region’s diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the Zimbabwe crisis.

It was unclear whether Mugabe was aware of the meeting, which was described by the South African foreign ministry as private.

Mugabe says bringing the parliamentary election forward would ease election arrangements and save money, even if it means curtailing the five-year life of the current parliament.

There was no immediate response to Mugabe’s proposal for the “harmonisation” of the polls from Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change, which had condemned the previous plan to delay the elections until 2010.

The opposition holds 41 seats in the 150 seat parliament, where Mugabe appoints 50 of the MPs.

In a further sign of apparent party rifts, the Herald said Mugabe “lashed out at some party members who could not withstand criticisms by some Western countries and the international media”.

Zimbabwe has come in for international condemnation for attacks on activists, including Tsvangirai, who was badly beaten after his arrest on March 11. Several other leaders were also taken to hospital.

Mugabe blamed the opposition for the recent violence and dismissed claims that his rule was approaching an end.

He said a continued campaign of defiance or protests by opponents and civic and church groups would be met “very vigorously” by security forces.

“We hope they have learned a lesson. If they have not, then they will get similar treatment,” he said.

Police reported a third petrol bomb attack on a police station in a month of rising unrest, blaming it on suspected opposition activists, the Herald said.

No one was injured in the attack in the eastern provincial capital of Mutare, police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena was quoted by the Herald as saying.

The opposition has routinely denied involvement any such attacks.