Mugabe won’t give up without a fight

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe looks increasingly likely to lose the popular vote in Saturday's parliamentary and presidential elections, but he won't lose power. A legal and constitutional piece of trickery is being planned, which will see him remain president for up to another year.

The plan is the work of his loyal Chief Justice, Godfrey Chidyausiku, who will, if it becomes necessary, use new electoral laws passed late last year, under Constitutional Amendment No 18, to declare the result of Saturday's election null and void.

The new law says that if an appeal against the Electoral Nomination Court is upheld in the High Court, the election must be suspended. Two such appeals have been made, by two little-known candidates who are said to have arrived late with their

papers and were consequently rejected.

On Sunday, if and when the early vote count indicates that Mugabe (left) is losing, the Chief Justice will move to uphold these appeals. The effect will be to suspend the elections for 90 days, during which Mugabe will continue to rule.

According to sources within the President's clique, Mugabe then plans to suspend Parliament and declare a state of emergency. This will give him another year in power.

This last-ditch plan to cling to power has come about because one of Mugabe's main weapons of terror and subversion, the much-feared Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), has suddenly become politically unreliable.

It is the CIO's job to rig the election in Mugabe's favour. Its agents are responsible for the intimidation of opposition supporters, the stuffing of ballot boxes with some of the 9m ballot papers available for a registered voting list of 4.5m people, the forging of postal votes, the organisation of mass army and police votes for Mugabe, and