Zimbabwe To Delay Presidential Elections

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Reporting byReuters
HARARE
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ruling party is considering delaying presidential elections in 2008 and holding the vote with general parliamentary polls in 2010, state radio reported on Sunday.
The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation quoted Nathan Shamuyarira, information secretary for Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, as saying although discussions were at preliminary stages, the party was looking at the possibility of postponing the 2008 poll in order to consolidate the voting calendar.
"The ruling ZANU-PF party is consulting party members and will soon lobby parliament over the possibility of holding joint presidential and parliamentary elections in 2010, a senior official has revealed," the ZBC said.
"Comrade Nathan Shamuyarira said the party was likely to push for the joint presidential-parliamentary elections to be held in 2010."
Shamuyarira was not available for further details.
Officials of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) could also not be reached for immediate comment, but has in the past said it would oppose any attempt to change the electoral calendar.
The MDC has tried unsuccessfully to press ZANU-PF to accept inter-party talks on Zimbabwe's crisis over disputed elections, security and media laws and constitutional reforms, with Mugabe saying the MDC must raise its problems in parliament.
A change in the electoral calendar would require a change in the constitution. The ruling party enjoys a technical two-thirds majority in parliament so it can pass such amendments easily.
Shamuyarira did not say whether Mugabe, 82, and in power since the southern African country's independence from Britain in 1980, would remain in office to 2010 or hand over to someone when his current six-year presidential term ends in March 2008.
Mugabe has previously suggested he will retire in 2008, but has not been categorical about the decision -- a point which analysts say means that the veteran Zimbabwean leader is keeping his options open.
There has been speculation over the past year that Mugabe might hang onto power until 2010 or retire in 2008 but only under a law allowing his chosen successor in ZANU-PF to hold power for a couple of years before facing the opposition in a 2010 general election.
Political analysts say Mugabe and ZANU-PF fear an electoral challenge amid a deepening economic crisis many blame on his government, and might hope a delay would allow time for improvement in an economy struggling with the world's highest inflation rate of over 1,200 percent.
The opposition charges that Mugabe's government has robbed it of victory in three major elections in the last six years, and says his government has become more repressive in the face of the economic meltdown.
Mugabe denies the charge, and in turn accuses the MDC of being a puppet of Western powers seeking to overthrow his party over its controversial seizures of white-owned farms to redistribute to landless blacks.© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

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