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.