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Elections: Mugabe 'best choice'
16/08/2007 14:00 - (SA)
Lusaka - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is the ruling party's best choice for the 2008 presidential election, said a key minister on Thursday, brushing aside growing demands for political reforms.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said: "Mugabe is the best foot forward for us to win in 2008 and for us to win against imperialism." He was speaking ahead of the opening of a summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The two-day summit of leaders from the region was set to be dominated by the crisis in Zimbabwe, which had led millions of its citizens to flee to neighbouring countries.
He said: "No political reforms are necessary in my country. We have a democracy like any other democracy in this world... I cannot see how a system can be any fairer or more transparent (than it is Zimbabwe)."
Zim in throes of economic crisis
The Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) had been the ruling political party in Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980 and led by Mugabe.
Chinamasa blamed his country's economic woes on sanctions imposed by the West, and described allegations of human rights violations in Zimbabwe as "fabrications".
Zimbabwe was also in the throes of an economic crisis with inflation well past the 5 000% mark, four in every five people jobless and 80% of the population living below the poverty threshold.
Chinamasa said: "You have a situation, where issues are being portrayed, exaggerated. People try Zimbabwe as a country that has become ungovernable. Nothing is further from the truth."
Mbeki was mandated by the 14-nation SADC last March to mediate in the political crisis between Mugabe's government and the opposition and was scheduled to present his report to the summit.
- AFP
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Zimbabwe Special Report
