Mugabe, 88, intends to run again

Dictator- president compares his continuing survival to Christ’s resurrection

JOHANNESBURG — Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwe president, compared himself with Jesus Tuesday as he used his 88th birthday celebrations to dismiss persistent reports of ill- health.

He declared he was as “fit as a fiddle” and promised to hold elections this year.

In an interview with the Zimbabwe state broadcaster, Mugabe joked: “I have died many times. That’s where I have beaten Christ. Christ died once and resurrected once.”

Mugabe, a devout Catholic who has been in power since 1980 and is Africa’s oldest leader, laughed repeatedly during a long interview, saying he had no intention of stepping down. “At this age I can still go some distance, can’t I,” he said.

Mugabe charmed world leaders with his wit and intellect in the early years of his rule, when a relatively rich Zimbabwe was praised for its education and social systems. But he has since become a pariah in the West, blamed for running the economy into the ground and for massive human rights abuses to keep his grip on power.

He promised to run again in elections he insisted should be held this year — even if that breaks an agreement he signed with Morgan Tsvangirai, the prime minister in Zimbabwe’s fragile coalition government, that a new constitution must be in place before the next poll.

Brian Raftopoulos, a Zimbabwean political analyst, said he feared elections without political reforms would leave Mugabe’s Zanu- PF party free to inflict violence. But, Mugabe — who was beaten by Tsvangirai in elections marred by violence in 2008 — said the MDC was no longer an “enemy” but a political “opponent.”