{"id":6019,"date":"2011-12-12T12:13:08","date_gmt":"2011-12-12T10:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/12\/analysis-mugabe-wins-party-vote-but-challenged-by-age-ill-health\/"},"modified":"2011-12-12T12:13:08","modified_gmt":"2011-12-12T10:13:08","slug":"analysis-mugabe-wins-party-vote-but-challenged-by-age-ill-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/analysis-mugabe-wins-party-vote-but-challenged-by-age-ill-health\/","title":{"rendered":"ANALYSIS-Mugabe wins party vote but challenged by age, ill health"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span id=\"midArticle_start\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Mugabe exploits ZANU-PF leadership factions to hang on<span id=\"midArticle_byline\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_0\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* President faces battle to stretch 32 years of power<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Old age, ill health and young voters pose challenge<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Fear party hardliners will resort to violent campaign<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_3\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Cris Chinaka<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_4\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>HARARE, Dec 11 (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwean President Robert<br \/>\nMugabe was endorsed again by his party to stand for elections<br \/>\nexpected next year, but analysts say even for a veteran<br \/>\npolitical survivor, the 87-year-old leader will find it harder<br \/>\nto convince voters to extend his rule after 32 years in power.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_5\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Mugabe, they said, would face young voters, many born after<br \/>\nindependence from Britain in 1980, who may not be overly<br \/>\nimpressed with his party&#8217;s tales of its leadership role in the<br \/>\nliberation struggle and are instead desperate to find jobs in<br \/>\nthe country which has the world&#8217;s highest unemployment rate.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_6\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>ZANU-PF members want Mugabe to hand over the reins to a<br \/>\nyounger leader, but nobody has ever openly challenged him due to<br \/>\na generous political patronage system and his ability to<br \/>\npatiently wear down opponents and keep them guessing on his next<br \/>\nmove.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_7\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mugabe has kept going by looking after everybody in some<br \/>\nway, balancing various interests, managing the warring factions<br \/>\nfighting over who takes over from him and cynically making<br \/>\nhimself the glue holding ZANU-PF together,&#8221; said Eldred<br \/>\nMasunungure, political science professor at the University of<br \/>\nZimbabwe.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_8\"><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Mugabe exploits ZANU-PF leadership factions to hang on * President faces battle to stretch 32 years of power * Old age, ill health and young voters pose challenge * Fear party hardliners will resort to violent campaign By Cris Chinaka HARARE, Dec 11 (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was endorsed again by his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-6019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}