VOA常速英语2008年-Zimbabwe's Mugabe Faces Election Challenge From

By Peta Thornycroft
05 February 2008

A senior and long-standing member of the ruling ZANU-PF, Simba Makoni, announced in Harare that he will stand as an independent candidate against President Robert Mugabe in the upcoming presidential election.  Peta Thornycroft reports for VOA this is the first time in nearly 20 years that Mr. Mugabe will be challenged by a senior member of his own party.

President Robert Mugabe faces his stiffest electoral challenge with the surprise announcement that Simba Makoni will face him in the polls on March 29.

Mr. Makoni, 57, is a chemist and former finance minister who was forced out of office in 2002 when he tried to devalue the Zimbabwe currency.  His announcement follows months of secret planning. 

According to reports published in Zimbabwe, he told President Mugabe only a week ago that he had never intended to stand as a candidate.

Mr. Makoni told a press conference in Harare that he shared the agony of citizens from nearly 10 years of extreme hardships that were a result of a failure of national leadership.

He said he is not an opposition¹ party and that he would have liked to have stood for ZANU-PF, but that President Mugabe had made that impossible for him or anyone else.   He said he would not be in the campaign alone, that he would be joined by many others from ZANU-PF. 

Analysts² in Harare say even without party backing he has strong support from important leaders in ZANU-PF and will also be supported by significant numbers of the divided opposition Movement for Democratic Change, MDC.

Founding MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai's secretary-general, Tendai Biti, said the Makoni announcement proved there were internal divisions in ZANU-PF and that "President Mugabe was no longer in charge."

He said all the democratic forces should join hands and be "decent enough to come together."

Gabriel Chaibva spokesman for the MDC faction³ led by Arthur Mutambara said he welcomed the announcement that shows the president has opponents inside ZANU-PF.  He also said, hinting at a political pact⁴, that his party supported the idea of one candidate to fight Mr. Mugabe.

Zimbabwe has the fastest-shrinking peacetime economy in the world, which many analysts say is due to President Mugabe destroying commercial agriculture by confiscating⁵ 90 percent of the country's white-owned farms since 2000.

Mr. Makoni is one of the few senior members of ZANU-PF who bought his own farm and did not accept a white farm from the Mugabe government.

 

1 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

2 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

3 faction   

n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争

参考例句：

• Faction and self-interest appear to be the norm.派系之争和自私自利看来非常普遍。
• I now understood clearly that I was caught between the king and the Bunam's faction.我现在完全明白自己已陷入困境，在国王与布纳姆集团之间左右为难。

4 pact   

n.合同，条约，公约，协定

参考例句：

• The two opposition parties made an electoral pact.那两个反对党订了一个有关选举的协定。
• The trade pact between those two countries came to an end.那两国的通商协定宣告结束。

5 confiscating   

没收（confiscate的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• There was Mame by my side confiscating my intellects and attention. 有玛米坐在我身边，害得我心不在焉。
• Intimidate book sellers by confiscating books deemed unfavourable to the Barisan government. 充公被视为对国阵不利的书籍，威胁书商。