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Mugabe launches re-election campaign at birthday party
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe celebrated his 84th birthday at a huge rally yesterday where he formally launched his re-election campaign.
- Reuters
- Published: 21:20 February 23, 2008
- Image Credit: AP
- Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe (centre) releases balloons into the air at his 84th birthday celebrations in Beitbridge, Zimbabwe yesterday.
Beitbridge, Zimbabwe: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe celebrated his 84th birthday at a huge rally yesterday where he formally launched his re-election campaign.
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, is seeking another five-year term to extend his grip on the African nation, which is mired in an economic crisis marked by an inflation rate of more than 100,000 per cent and chronic food and fuel shortages.
The 84-year-old leader is facing a serious challenge from one-time ally and former finance minister Simba Makoni, who has vowed to reverse the country's economic slide if elected in the March 29 vote.
Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the main faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, is also a presidential candidate.
Mugabe turned 84 on Thursday but marked the occasion yesterday in this town on the border with South Africa.
Angered
Analysts say the birthday bash will set the tone of Mugabe's presidential campaign, primarily against a younger Makoni, whose candidacy has angered Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF party.
The 58-year-old Makoni was expelled this month from the ZANU-PF, and Mugabe has compared the challenger to a prostitute.
Critics, including Makoni, blame Mugabe for extensive mismanagement that has made the once-prosperous southern African nation one of the poorest in the region. Millions of Zimbabweans have fled the country in search of food and work.
"This time round, Mugabe cannot bluff his way around. He will have to talk about bread-and-butter issues, about how he plans to repair an economy, which many people believe has been damaged by his government," said John Makumbe, an anti-Mugabe political analyst.
Mugabe is likely to continue blaming Zimbabwe's economic problems on sabotage by Western nations, whom he accuses of plotting to oust him for his government's policy of seizing white-owned farms and redistributing the land to blacks.
The veteran ruler says Britain and its allies are attempting to destabilise Zimbabwe ahead of the election by deploying hundreds of people to the country under the guise of working for non-governmental organisations.
Critics say the charge is another bid by Mugabe to mask his government's failings in an election that is looking like a watershed for modern Zimbabwe.
Future
"With Mugabe and ZANU-PF at the helm, the future is dark, empty. Whether Makoni can make a difference may be a mute question. What is clear is that under Mugabe there is no future at all," the weekly Standard newspaper wrote in an editorial.
Tsvangirai also launched his election campaign yesterday pledging to revive the country's moribund economy and mend strained relations with the West.
"We believe the Zimbabwean economy is an enclave economy that is uneven, unequal and virtually dead," Tsvangirai told thousands of supporters gathered at a stadium in the eastern border town of Mutare.
"We are not going to patch up the tattered economy. The economy has been destroyed to such an extent that we need to start afresh. Zimbabwe is one of the world's great humanitarian crises. We need food, drugs and medical care. The nations of the world are helping but we need more," Tsvangirai said.
"Beyond the humanitarian aid, we need the help of the world to rebuild our economy, but more than anything, we must look after our own," he added.
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