Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said on Friday failure by the ZANU-PF leadership to appreciate the extent of the threat facing the party caused the "disastrous" performance in the March 29 harmonized elections.
Addressing the 73rd ZANU-PF ordinary session of the central committee at the party headquarters, Mugabe said bickering and divisions within the party allowed the opposition to steal the vote from under the nose of the ruling party.
"Fundamentally, we went to the elections completely unprepared, unorganized, and this against an election-weary voter," he said. "As leaders, we all share the blame; from the national level to the branch chairman."
Mugabe said failure by the party to mobilize resources left candidates with the burden of financing their own campaigns against opponents backed by powerful foreign governments and corporates determined to protect their interests.
He said the party should have appreciated the extent of the threat it was fighting and closed ranks in defense of its survival.
Mugabe urged the party members to value the unity and principles that guided the liberation struggle and reminded them of the hovering threat of recolonization as whites were desperate to stake a claim on the land that was repossessed from them.
On succession, President Mugabe urged those who were aspiring to take the reigns of the party to wait until the party wins the presidential run-off to raise the issue for discussion, adding in an environment of defeat there could never be succession.
"Succession is a fact of biology, of life," he said. "No one individual governs for ever. I have to be succeeded. But we should never mistake the succession of individuals with the succession of ZANU-PF by the Rhodesia Front, however disguised."
He urged the members to concentrate all their efforts towards the impending run-off by burying their differences and mobilizing the people to go and vote in large numbers.
On political violence that was raging in some parts of the country, President Mugabe said it was needless and should stop immediately.
He urged members to use persuasion and not coercion to win the support of the people.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has set June 27 as the date for the run-off.
Source:Xinhua
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