Zimbabwe Party Launches Drive to Reelect Mugabe

The nation’s ruling party has launched a media blitz for President Robert Mugabe’s reelection bid, with a date for the March vote expected to be announced soon.

The weekend drive also coincided with reports that militants from Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, or ZANU-PF, have stepped up a violent campaign against the main opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change, ahead of the election.

On Saturday, the MDC accused youths loyal to Mugabe of attacking one of its offices and the home of a legislator, as violence rises ahead of the presidential election. The MDC also said five of its supporters have been killed in the last two weeks.

ZANU-PF has been splashing a series of advertisements in both private and state-owned newspapers, projecting the embattled former guerrilla leader as a nationalist threatened by a Western-backed rival.

The ads as well as dozens of articles in the government media praise Mugabe’s social, agricultural and economic policies and attack his critics and rivals--mainly MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is expected to give the 77-year-old president the toughest contest of his career.

The government-owned Sunday Mail newspaper said Mugabe will announce the March polling dates this week.

Government officials were not available to comment on the newspaper report, which was attributed to highly placed sources.

In its media blitz, ZANU-PF calls its black opponents puppets of former colonial power Britain and Zimbabwe’s former white rulers.

The white opponents are portrayed as racists who hanker for white rule under the former Rhodesia, Zimbabwe’s colonial name.