ZIMBABWE: Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe will use his party's newly acquired two-thirds majority in parliament to reinstate most of the provisions of a draft constitution rejected in a national referendum in February 2000.
The 81-year-old president, whose party's election victory last Friday was endorsed by regional observer missions but described as fraudulently acquired by the opposition party and local observers, said his ruling party's new powers would be used to increase the number of MPs in the parliament from 150 to 200.
During an interview with the South African Broadcasting Company last night, he said another aim through constitutional change was to ensure parliamentary and presidential elections were held concurrently in future.
But Mr Mugabe said he did not believe the constitution should be changed to impose term limits on the president as envisioned in the rejected draft constitution.
"I do not believe in term limits . . . Let the people have their choices in elections and don't limit their choices," he said.
Mr Mugabe's revelations about constitutional change came a day after a South African observer mission and the regional Southern African Development Community observer mission described the election results as encapsulating "the will of the people". South Africa's minister for minerals and energy, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who led the development community mission, went on to endorse the Zimbabwe election as "peaceful, credible and dignified", saying it was carried out in an "open, transparent and professional manner".
She also said there were "high levels of political tolerance and maturity".
However, neither group was willing to describe the election as free and fair.
Meanwhile, the embattled Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has demanded fresh parliamentary elections under a new constitution, saying voting can never be free and fair under the country's current electoral regime.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said his party had in reality won 94 of parliament's 120 elected seats but "massive rigging" had restricted it to the 41 announced by electoral officials.
Mr Tsvangirai did not release details to justify how he arrived at the 94 figure but cited inconsistencies in the number of ballots cast and registered voters in more than 30 constituencies.