Mugabe Challenger Short on Specifics

Zimbabwe Ex-Minister Says Little on Political Strategy, Economy

HARARE, Zimbabwe, Feb. 13 -- A former ruling party stalwart opened his presidential campaign Wednesday by saying he would defeat President Robert Mugabe in a landslide in Zimbabwe's March 29 election, but he offered few hints on how.

In an hour-long news conference and a nine-page policy document titled "Elements of the Manifesto," which was released later, Simba Makoni offered his most detailed statements since announcing last week that he intended to challenge Mugabe.

Yet Makoni, a former finance minister who was formally ousted from the ruling party Tuesday for challenging the president, did not announce a campaign strategy or offer a diagnosis of why a once-prosperous nation has, over the past decade, become one of Africa's poorest. And he suggested few potential solutions beyond vows to improve services and attract foreign investment.

Makoni said he would appoint a national authority that would determine how to restore the economy and reunite the country after years of bitter political stalemate.

"We represent newness. We represent freshness. We represent togetherness," Makoni, 57, told journalists gathered at a hotel in the capital, Harare.

He added later: "I am not challenging President Mugabe. I am offering myself to the people of Zimbabwe instead of President Mugabe."

Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since the end of white supremacist rule in 1980, has come under sharp criticism for crackdowns on personal liberties and media freedoms. In 2000, he also began encouraging a land redistribution campaign that gave many white-owned commercial farms to poor blacks but devastated the economy.

Makoni said land redistribution should continue but with a focus on stimulating the economy.

Makoni's entry into the presidential race has jolted Zimbabwean politics after years in which Mugabe's party, the African National Union-Patriotic Front, repeatedly defeated an opposition led by Morgan Tsvangirai in elections widely denounced as unfair.

Tsvangirai's party, the Movement for Democratic Change, entered this election season split between two rival factions running their own candidates.

The leader of the other faction, Arthur Mutambara, has signaled his interest in joining forces with Makoni, narrowing the likely field to three major candidates. Gabriel Chaibva, a spokesman for Mutambara's faction, called Makoni's decision to run "bold and courageous."

Tsvangirai, meanwhile, has dismissed Makoni as "old wine in a new bottle."