(Last Updated on December 21, 2012 by CORRESPONDENT)
Zimbabwe-ZANU PF has already blown its chances of winning the harmonized elections set for next year by fielding an unelectable Robert Mugabe as their presidential candidate, a political analyst has said.
Pedzisai Ruhanya, a director with the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute said as a result of its failure to change its leadership, the former ruling party is being ‘propelled into the wilderness by political and economic plans that repel voters.’
Speaking on SW Radio Africa’s Hidden Story program on Wednesday, Ruhanya predicted that after 32 years in power, at which he presided over the worst economy in the world, Robert Mugabe is now unelectable and so is ZANU PF.
‘Mugabe is going to turn 89 in February next year and will become one of the oldest political candidates to contest an election. Zimbabwe will reject him at the ballot box. The inability to change its leadership will almost certainly condemn ZANU PF to political history.
‘Zimbabweans cannot invest their future into an 89 year-old candidate and this is a quandary for ZANU PF and a huge problem for Mugabe and this is not opposition driven, it is self inflicted,’ Ruhanya said.
He said Mugabe failed to implement the GPA because that would also mean his defeat: ‘ZANU PF being aware that it has survived for 32 years because of repressive media and security laws would not dare implement the provisions of the GPA’
He emphasized that Mugabe abuses, disregards and celebrates violence, which has seen him survive for this long, including in his own party.
‘Violence is part of ZANU PF’s DNA and this is why they say ZANU PF ndeyeropa (ZANU PF is for blood). That is why in his own party Mugabe is not contested, he’s intolerant to internal democratic processes.
‘Now….what do you think will be his attitude when he is contested by a foreigner, someone outside ZANU PF. If you look back to 2008, the results are there for everyone to see,’ observed Ruhanya.