Zimbabwe: Mugabe's Big Election Gamble

opinion

President Robert Mugabe is a man generally not known to go back on a particular statement that he makes in public, no matter how irrational it may seem. In our current national political circumstances he has indicated, at least politically, that he is keen to see out the end of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) via the constitutional reform process in order to have national elections by the end of June 2011. He reiterated the same message as recently as at a conference of traditional chiefs in Kariba towards the end of last month.

The circumstances that have led Mugabe to declare such a seemingly absolute position are interesting to say the least. In what one can only view as frustration at what he considers the intransigence of the MDC-T after it protested the unilateral appointments of governors and ambassadors, Mugabe decided to take one of the biggest gambles of his latter-day political career. This is because his decision to announce his intention to ensure that elections are held by June next year is extremely problematic for his party and his leadership tenure.

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