Nkomo confirms presidential ambitions

Nkomo confirms presidential ambitions

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By Staff Reporter

THE speaker of the Zimbabwean parliament John Nkomo has indicated that he will throw his hat into the ring for the contest to succeed veteran President Robert Mugabe.

"Why would I vie for the vice-president's position when there is the presidency?" Nkomo, who is also the governing Zanu PF party's chairman, told reporters in the second-largest city of Bulawayo.

"Why should I not be president? I have risen through the ranks from branch level to the national party chairman, which is less strenuous but very powerful. So why not the presidency?"

The 70-year-old former teacher and veteran politician said it would be up to the electorate to choose the country's next leader.

"When the time comes that there is a vacancy, someone will occupy it. Our people are intelligent enough to make the choice."

Nkomo refused to say whether the next presidential polls would be held as scheduled in 2008 when Mugabe's sixth term will have elapsed or whether the contest would be held over until 2010 to coincide with parliamentary elections, as has been widely muted.

Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since independence from British colonial rule in 1980, has indicated he will retire at the end of his current term.

Senior members of Zanu PF have been jostling behind the scenes for the last two years since 82-year-old Mugabe first spoke of stepping down. Nkomo's decision to announce his interest in Mugabe's job has "thrown the cat among the Zanu PF pigeons", the privately-owned Standard newspaper opined Sunday.

Although Mugabe has held off anointing a successor, he hinted that Vice-President Joice Mujuru was destined for higher office when Zanu PF elected her as the party's deputy leader in December 2004.

"When you choose her as vice president, you don't want her to remain in that chair, do you?" Mugabe told the ruling party's annual congress.

However, those close to Mugabe say her star is waning following recent corruption scandals and an apparent lack of public support.

Rural Housing Minister Emerson Mnangagwa, former finance minister Simba Makoni and Reserve Bank governor, Gideon Gono, are some of the figures thought to be interested in Mugabe's job, although none has openly confirmed interest -- partly because of fear of how Mugabe would react.

Mugabe has recently been criticising infighting among senior party members who are due to gather at the Zanu PF conference in Goromonzi early next month. - AP/Staff Reporter

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