President Robert Mugabe has set June 29, 2013 to hold elections in Zimbabwe but a faction within his Zanu PF has opposed to the date fearing that the party is not yet ready for polls, senior officials have said.

According to President Mugabe,''the cut-off date for an election is June 29 and not any other day later urging all the processes leading to elections, including the voter registration and voter education exercises to be done as soon as possible.”

A Zanu PF official said Mugabe’s confidence of winning stemmed from the fact that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has been weakened by scandals and the failure by the Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai (MDC-T) to deliver on many promises the party made when it joined the coalition government four years ago.

He said Mugabe also believed the party lost the 2008 elections due to the imposition of candidates and now wanted all top Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) officials to be challenged during primary elections.

Zimbabwe last went to polls in 2008 where President Mugabe’s party suffered a tight defeat in the national parliamentary elections, but after disputed presidential elections, Mugabe retained presidential power with the signing of a power-sharing deal with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

AEP