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Zim parly to the polls in 2005
19/02/2004 18:12 - (SA)
Harare - President Robert Mugabe will call parliamentary elections in March next year, three months earlier than required under electoral law, state radio reported on Thursday.
He did not specify a date for the five-yearly polls, which must be held before the end of June 2005.
Mugabe, who turns 80 on Saturday, was quoted as saying he has no plans to retire from political life. He said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai "will never defeat him in parliamentary elections," radio reported.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change holds 54 of Parliament's 120 elected seats. Mugabe appoints 30 other lawmakers, giving him a sweeping majority he has used to pass repressive security and media legislation.
Mugabe spoke on Wednesday while touring a former white-owned farm northeast of the capital, Harare, one of thousands seized by the government for redistribution to blacks.
He promised voters "the consolidation of the land reform programme and the empowerment of the majority of Zimbabweans," if his party is re-elected, the radio said.
A ploy
Opponents say the seizures, which began in 2000, are a ploy to shore up Mugabe's flagging popularity in rural areas, the traditional stronghold of his Zanu-PF party. The government lost a referendum on constitutional changes earlier that year - Mugabe's only voting defeat since he led the country to independence from Britain in 1980.
The farm seizures, coupled with erratic rains, have crippled the agriculture-based economy. Zimbabwe faces record inflation and unemployment, along with acute shortages of food, hard currency, fuel, medicines and other imports.
Mugabe narrowly won re-election in 2002 in a vote independent observers and opposition leaders said was marred by intimidation and vote rigging.
- AP
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