Mugabe to stay on until 2010

Mugabe to stay on until 2010 - spokesman

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By Torby Chimhashu

ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe will stay on for a further two years when his term expires in 2008, his spokesman said Saturday.

George Charamba, writing as under the pseudonym Nathaniel Manheru in the official Herald newspaper announced that the next Presidential elections will be held in 2010.

The revelations are a final confirmation that Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party will be making constitutional amendments to bring the Presidential elections in line with the parliamentary elections which are set to be held in 2010.

Zanu PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira has previously denied that the party is seeking to postpone the elections to 2010 to buy more time for the ruling party to deal with its succession politics.

Shamuyarira, who is writing Mugabe's memoirs, is Charamba's senior in the party.

But Charamba is seen as more closely in touch with Mugabe, and his word is likely to strike a cord with the President and his advisers.

He wrote in the Herald: "When Zimbabweans go to the polls in 2010, polls to choose their president and members of parliament, our repining private media, the British and the Americans will have died from confounded predictions.

"That is my prediction. I mean these people — no — these institutions have built as many scenarios as they have cared to demolish. And each demolition opens the way for a new round of frenzied speculation, in fact installs a whole new generation of "knowing" speculators. It has become an obsession."

There has been frenzied reporting in the media that Zanu PF, using its huge majority in parilament, would push for a constitutional change that will allow Mugabe's successor to rule for 18 months before the elections are finally held.

This, said reports, would also see Mugabe exiting the political arena which he has dominated for 26 years.

But the latest revelations by his spokesman and trusted lieutenent are likely to cause consternations within the ruling party's ranks and maybe scuttle negotiations between churches, Zanu PF and the fractitious opposition MDC.

Zanu PF is reeling from serious internal power struggles as a result of the unresolved succession issue.

Rural Housing Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and Mugabe's deputy, Joice Mujuru, are seen as front runners to succeed the veteran leader.

Speaker of Parliament John Nkomo, former Finance Minister Simba Makoni and central bank governor Gideon Gono are seen as dark horses in the race to succeed Mugabe who turns 83 next February.

The date for the Presidential elections is likely to be finally agreed when Zanu PF holds its annual conference in Goromonzi from December 13.

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