Mugabe to be given extra two years in power

ROBERT Mugabe is expected to be given an additonal two years as president of Zimbabwe, with the ruling party expected to endorse a controversial proposal to extend his rule until 2010.

Mr Mugabe's ZANU-PF party opens a three-day annual conference today to discuss the economy and proposals to "harmonise" the national electoral calendar, effectively a call to postpone a 2008 presidential election until 2010, when parliamentary polls are due to be held.

Officially, ZANU-PF says it wants to postpone the presidential vote to save money, but analysts believe the decision is meant to give Mr Mugabe, 82, more time to sort out a bitter succession battle that threatens to split the party.

Mr Mugabe has ruled the country since independence from Britain in 1980, first as prime minister and later as president. He said he supported the extension of his presidency and would only retire when his ZANU-PF party wanted him to go.

"I will retire, of course, someday, but it all depends on the circumstances," he said. "I can't retire if my party is going to be in shambles. But any day we feel we are ready for that retirement - that is we, as a party, feel we are ready for it - sure."

The move to extend Mr Mugabe's rule, if adopted by ZANU-PF, would need to be approved by parliament, but that is seen as a formality because the party enjoys an overwhelming majority in both the lower and upper chambers of the legislature.

"This whole thing serves Mugabe, who definitely enjoys power even at a high cost, and it serves his party because it hasn't settled the succession question," said John Makumbe, a political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe and a leading Mugabe critic.

"But the cost of an extra two years with Mugabe will be big because the economy is collapsing over his policies, and the world is isolating Zimbabwe over his stance."

Zimbabwe's economy has endured eight years of recession, marked by chronic shortages of food and fuel. Inflation, at just under 1,100 per cent, is the highest in the world.

Mr Mugabe's policies, including the seizure of white-owned commercial farms for distribution to landless blacks, have been blamed for the economy's collapse.

He denies the charges, blaming the problems instead on sanctions by western powers, primarily Britain.

Analysts say ZANU-PF remains bitterly divided following Mr Mugabe's decision in late 2004 to appoint Joyce Mujuru, a relative political lightweight, as his deputy - a post seen as a stepping stone for the top job.

Factions aligned to Ms Mujuru and the rural housing minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa, are jostling for support to succeed the president. Analysts say the speaker of the parliament, John Nkomo, and the central bank governor, Gideon Gono, could also start lobbying for the post.

Political commentators said some ZANU-PF officials were unhappy with the plan to extend the presidency because they wanted a new leader in 2008 to help change policies that have prompted many western donors to suspend aid to the country. A provincial executive controlled by Ms Mujuru's husband, Solomon Mujuru, a retired army general, has not yet backed the proposal.

Analysts say Ms Mujuru would have benefited from an early Mugabe exit.