Mugabe to outlast Blair!

Just over half of the people interviewed in a survey by the Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI) have said they want President Robert Mugabe to retire now and pave way for fresh elections. But The Insider has heard through the grapevine that someone has predicted that though under increasing pressure, Mugabe is likely to outlast his biggest adversary, British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

A source that witnessed the prediction was baffled but there are already signs that there could some truth to it. Blair, who was re-elected in 2001, should serve until 2006 while Mugabe who was re-elected in controversial elections last year should serve until 2008.

But both leaders are under pressure to leave before the expiry of their terms. Mugabe is under pressure to retire so that a new government can get the country back on a recovery path. The international community is saying it will not bail out Zimbabwe as long as Mugabe is in power.

Blair, on the other hand, is under increasing pressure to resign because of the way he handled the Iraq war.

The MPOI survey indicated that 51.3 percent of those polled wanted Mugabe to step down immediately. Some 1 351 people were involved in the survey. There were 654 men and 697 women with 837 being drawn from rural areas and 499 from urban areas. The selection represented the national composition of the population according to the 2002 census.

The majority of those polled said opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai should be the next president.

The second most popular person was former Finance Minister Simba Makoni. John Nkomo was third followed closely by Emmerson Mnangagwa. Joseph Msika was next with Jonathan Moyo beating Eddison Zvobgo and Sydney Sekeremayi.

Other interesting findings from the survey were that though 80 percent of the respondents wanted ZANU-PF and the MDC to talk, 39.8 percent said the two parties should not form a government of national unity because they did not trust ZANU-PF. They were afraid it would manipulate the MDC.

Nearly 70 percent said the two parties should form a transitional government to pave way for fresh elections but a staggering 80 percent did not know what a transitional government was.

Interestingly the majority of respondents felt that both ZANU-PF and the MDC were not committed to a resolution of the present crisis though more felt ZANU-PF was to blame for failure of talks between the two parties.

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