Robert Mugabe was effectively crowned President for life yesterday after Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu (PF) party “affirmed” that he was its sole candidate in elections due next year.

A carefully orchestrated special congress passed without a vote or a single word of debate, all but assuring Mr Mugabe, 83, another five-year term as President. Senior party officials lavished praise on the leader as thousands of supporters wearing shirts bearing his image brandished banners denouncing Gordon Brown, whom Mr Mugabe regularly accuses of trying to foment opposition. Possible challengers from the two main factions within the ruling party were sidelined by the stage-managed congress. Mr Mugabe, who has been Zimbabwe’s supreme leader since independence in 1980, has spent much of the past year manoeuvring to block the ambitions of Joyce Mujuru, one of two vice-presidents, and her husband Solomon, a former general who is regarded as a major party power broker. The “extraordinary” congress was called to rubber-stamp Mr Mugabe’s candidacy.

After he made a wandering two-hour speech to the 10,000 delegates, mostly the rural poor, at an indoor stadium in Harare, the congress moved on to the item of his “affirmation” as presidential candidate. Each chairman of the party’s ten provincial councils rose in turn to read out reports of their meetings in the past few months, each stating that they had endorsed Mr Mugabe. “That was it,” said a ruling party official who asked not to be named. “He wasn’t going to risk taking a vote. Of course no one objected. It would be suicide to challenge him openly.” Analysts say that the earlier provincial meetings were also orchestrated.

In 2005, when Mr Mugabe nominated Mrs Mujuru as vice-president, six of the ten provinces voted against her. In a rage, he sacked the chairmen in the six provinces, replaced them and ordered the vote to be retaken. The required result was then returned.

His most blatant manipulation was when his late wife, Sally, stood for the chair of the party’s women’s league in 1990. Although the results showed her well behind in second place, he declared her the winner.

Observers say that yesterday’s affair shows Mr Mugabe’s extreme anxiety over his authority as the country hurtles deeper into economic chaos.

Queues for cash outside banks were longer than ever yesterday, each person hoping for a maximum of Z$5 million – scarcely enough for a return trip between township and industrial area. In the city centre, people chopped at hedges for firewood as power cuts lengthened.

Mr Mugabe, in a shirt featuring large pictures of himself, mentioned none of this in his speech. “I am 75kg, but I am carrying the weight of 14 million people, babies, ladies fat and thin,” he said. “I dare not abandon them. Every one of them matters to me. Their welfare is my welfare.”

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