No plans for a longer Mugabe term: Zanu (PF)

Zimbabwe's ruling party has denied planning to postpone the country's 2008 presidential election to 2010, Zim Online reported today.

It quoted Didymus Mutasa, the Zanu (PF) secretary for administration, as saying: "There is nothing like that." Nathan Shamuyarira, the Party spokesperson, on Sunday said Zanu (PF) was considering pushing back the presidential poll by two years to held simultaneously with parliamentary polls in 2010. Such a move would give Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president, now in his 26th year in power, an extra two years at the helm.

Mutasa, the de facto party secretary-general, said the first he learnt of the plan was when he read about it in the newspapers. "As secretary for administration, I am in the picture of what is happening in the party but not this thing that we want to hold joint presidential and parliamentary elections (in 2010)."

Chinamasa also rejected the notion of a postponed presidential poll. "As far as I am concerned that is not true," he said. Shamuyarira could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Mugabe (82) earlier indicated he would step down at the end of his current term in 2008. - Sapa