Mugabe party splits on election candidate decisions
Zimbabwe’s split ruling party has postponed the launch of its general election campaign for a week to select two remaining candidates.
President Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front has been divided by disputes over its selection of candidates for the March 31 election.
The party was to have launched its election campaign at a weekend rally in Harare, presided over by Mugabe.
State radio said the party was repeating two internal polls, however, to choose candidates for two seats in western Zimbabwe.
Several reruns of internal polling have already been held after claims of rigging and corruption among aspiring candidates.
In December, the ZANU-PF party was rocked by its biggest split since independence in 1980 over the choice of Joyce Mujuru as the nation’s first woman vice-president.
Six of its 10 provincial chairmen were suspended from the party for five years for opposing the choice of Mujuru, favouring instead parliament speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa for the post that would put him in line as a possible successor to Mugabe, aged 80.
Several other party leaders involved in the power struggle, including three government ministers, were also disqualified from contesting the election on a ruling party ticket.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change announced yesterday it would contest the election.
