Mugabe to push for Zimbabwe polls at party conference

The yearly conference of President Robert Mugabe's party starts Wednesday as he pushes for Zimbabwe to hold elections next year and to rally his divided ranks behind his campaign to defeat Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Mugabe formally on Thursday opens the conference that will notably "look at the state of the party", ZANU-PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo told AFP on Tuesday. The three-day meeting will be held in Bulawayo, the country's second-largest city dominated by the minority Ndebele who have rejected Mugabe in every election for the last decade. No date has been set for elections to choose a government to replace the transitional power-sharing pact created after 2008 polls collapsed in a deadly spiral of violence that left more than 200 of Tsvangirai's supporters dead, according to rights groups. ZANU-PF has already endorsed 87-year-old Mugabe as its candidate, and the ageing leader will use the conference as a platform to push for elections, said independent political analyst Charles Mangongera. "Mugabe wants an election next year, although that may not happen," Mangongera said. Tsvangirai rebuffed the president's demands for early elections with regional backing, signalling Mugabe's more limited power in the unity government. A process to write a new constitution, to be approved by referendum, is over a year behind schedule. In the meantime, Mugabe will continue to play ZANU-PF's divisons to ensure his dominance, Mangongera said. "ZANU-PF is a divided organisation, it has various factions driven by certain interests both political and financial." One camp is led by Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, a hardliner reviled in Bulawayo for his role in the 1980s massacres of Ndebeles that left 20,000 dead. The other camp was led by the late general Solomon Mujuru, who died in a mysterious fire in August. His wife, Vice President Joice Mujuru, is still rallying supporters in the wake of his death. "Mujuru was a kingmaker," said Takavafira Zhou, a political scientist at Masvingo State University. "He was the only person who could face the old man (Mugabe) to say that this was wrong or right." In power since independence from Britain in 1980, Mugabe faces another challenge in worries about his health. Long-whispered rumours burst into the open with diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, in which top ZANU-PF officials told American diplomats that Mugabe has prostate cancer that has spread through his body. Mugabe has made near monthly visits to Singapore all year, but firmly denies receiving major medical treatment there. Most of the party's power struggles will play out behind closed doors. Public comments will likely focus on calls for elections and pushing forward a new law requiring foreign firms to cede majority stakes to local blacks.