Robert Mugabe Plans to Call Election in March Next Year

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe told the country’s High Court he plans to call an election in March, a step that would end a coalition government with the party of political rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mugabe wants to call a constitutional referendum in the first week of November and an election in the last week of March, according to documents filed with the country’s court.

The referendum and elections are part of an agreement brokered by the Southern African Development Community, a group of nations including Zimbabwe, after a vote held in 2008 was declared flawed because of procedural irregularities and violence by most observers.

Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party shares power with Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change under the agreement, which was implemented in February 2009 in a bid to end a decade-long political stalemate and economic recession.

To contact the reporters on this story: Brian Latham in Harare at blatham@bloomberg.net; Godfrey Marawanyika in Harare at gmarawanyika@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net