ZIMBABWE:Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party yesterday endorsed president Robert Mugabe as its candidate in the 2008 presidential election, opening the way for the 83-year-old leader to extend his rule for another five years.
"This congress is requested to declare Comrade Mugabe as candidate for the 2008 presidential election," Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zanu-PF secretary for legal affairs, said moments before the motion was accepted by acclamation.
Earlier, senior party officials showered praise on Mr Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980. They described him as a distinguished revolutionary who defended the rights of Zimbabweans and Africans.
Speaking before his endorsement, Mr Mugabe said the election would be held in March and that political parties had time to campaign for the polls, which analysts say the veteran leader is likely to win against a weak and divided opposition.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International has compiled a new dossier of allegations of torture and illegal detention by his regime. Anti-government protesters who were abducted after a peaceful demonstration in Harare last month were held captive and tortured in offices belonging to Zanu-PF the report says.
Researcher Simeon Mawanza, who led a three-person Amnesty delegation to the country, said "the severity of beatings and torture has been increasing" despite a mediation process between Zimbabwe and regional governments under the auspices of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Amnesty secretary general Irene Khan said the human rights environment in Zimbabwe was not conducive to free and fair elections. "We have found gross abuses of the law, police acting with impunity, and legislation being misused to prevent freedom of assembly."
Calling on SADC members to exert greater pressure on Mr Mugabe, she said: "African solidarity is too often used by African leaders to cover up for each other's shortcomings on human rights. By backing each other up, they are letting their own people down."
Amnesty's researchers identified a string of attacks against government critics. These included the abduction of more than 20 member of the National Constitutional Assembly on November 22nd. "They were severely beaten with sticks and iron bars, and ten of the people were hospitalised," said Mr Mawanza.