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(TALKZIMBABWE) Rumours now a staple of Western reporters: Mugabe

Rumours now a staple of Western reporters: Mugabe
By: Samantha Chidzero
Posted: Monday, January 24, 2011 12:44 am

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe says elections will take place even if parties in the inclusive Government fail to agree on a new Constitution, because the arrangement was only transient and never meant to be permanent.

"The inclusive Governent was not meant to be a permanent establishment and if there is no consensus or political agreement to come up with a new Constitution, I have the constitutional right to dissolve parliament and call for elections," said President Mugabe Sunday.

The President made made the statement on his arrival at Zimbabwe's Harare International Airport from Singapore where he was on his annual holiday.
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He said he would use his powers to dissolve Parliament if parties do not reach a consensus on the new Constitution.

The statement nullifies Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's earlier assertions that President Mugabe had no powers to dissolve Parliament.

"For those who do not want we will simply dissolve Parliament and go for an election under the old Constitution.”

He also dismissed as "naked lies" media reports that he had gone to Malaysia to seek treatment for prostate cancer.

Looking very fit, the President said: "Those are the rumours that they pass. They go on a campaign that I am not well every time I go on leave.

She recently wrote in the UK paper, The Telegraph, that President Mugabe had undergone surgery "in Malaysia".

President Mugabe laughed off a report by anti Zanu-PF journalist Peta Thornycroft that he was in Malaysia: "I was not even in Malaysia, I was in Singapore.

He said rumours about his supposed ill-health were now a staple of western-employed reporters whenever he went on his annual leave. “That's what they always say, so those are the lies they always put across from year to year.

"Now it’s something you expect each time I go on leave that they also go on their campaigns,” he said.

In an interview with Reuters last year, President Mugabe said: “I don’t know how many times I die but nobody has ever talked about my resurrection.

“I suppose they don’t want to, becau-se it would mean they would mention my resurrection several times and that would be quite divine, an achievement for an individual who is not divine.”

The Telegraph's Thornycroft has in the past written fictitious stories about President Mugabe.

"President Robert Mugabe is in hospital in Malaysia after an operation on his prostate," wrote Thronycroft on January, 16.

She further "speculated": "He returned home to Harare but his prostate suddenly flared and he has returned to Kuala Lumpur for the operation."

The president's return ends weeks of speculation about his health in online media.

President Mugabe's Zanu-PF party said elections will be held without fail this year to choose a successor to the inclusive Government formed nearly two years ago with the two MDC formations.

As part of their pact the parties agreed to draft a new Constitution, as a precursor to the next harmonised elections.

Labels: ROBERT MUGABE

posted by MrK @ 12:33 PM