Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's underlings are divided over whether he should quit, amid reports that he'll meet with his party's leadership to consider competing in a runoff election to continue his 28-year rule. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change claims its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, 56, beat Mugabe, 84, in the March 29 poll. Opposition politicians, most from the MDC, won control of parliament's House of Assembly in the vote, according to election officials, who haven't released presidential results.
At today's meeting, the Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front's politburo will discuss how to respond to the strong opposition showing, according to an intelligence official for a foreign government in Zimbabwe and news reports from there. ``They'll have to decide whether to proceed with a runoff or to transfer power,'' said Nana Ampofo, an analyst with Boston- based Global Insight Inc., in an interview from London. ``Mugabe has never shown a loss of appetite for power. He's not a timid man, but it's not clear if he has the backing from top to bottom in Zanu-PF.''