Quote:
Zimbabwe Leader Celebrates 84th Birthday
Feb 23, 5:29 PM (ET)
BEITBRIDGE, Zimbabwe (AP) - President Robert Mugabe vowed Saturday that "there will never be regime change" as he celebrated his 84th birthday at a rally ahead of elections next month.
The bash in the southern town of Beitbridge on the border with South Africa cost 3 trillion Zimbabwe dollars - the equivalent of about $250,000 at the dominant black market exchange rate.
Opponents blame Mugabe for an economic meltdown that has left Zimbabwe with acute shortages of gasoline, hard currency, food and most basic goods. The official rate of annual inflation rose to 100,580 percent in January - the highest in the world.
Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence from Britain in 1980, lashed out at the country's "enemies" who have criticized his presidency, including the U.S. and Britain.
"There will never be regime change here ... Never," he said Saturday.
Across the border, a few hundred Zimbabweans held a protest in the South African town of Musina. They launched a giant helium balloon with banners reading: "Elections free and fair or just hot air?" and "Bob, you've had your cake. Now beat it."
The presidential vote on March 29 is being contested by former ruling party loyalist Simba Makoni and the leader of an opposition faction, Morgan Tsvangirai, who launched his campaign in the eastern town of Mutare on Saturday.
Mugabe could face a run-off presidential poll for the first time if he does not win 51 percent of the vote.
In a nationwide television broadcast Thursday to mark his birthday, Mugabe verbally attacked Makoni, 57, calling him a "prostitute" and a "deviant" from the ruling party principles that built the country.
Makoni, fired by Mugabe as finance minister in 2002 in disagreements over economic policy, is expected to attract votes from disillusioned members of the ruling party and the fractured opposition.
Inflation, food shortages and the crumbling of power, water, sanitation, roads, phones and communications and other utilities have fueled deep divisions in the ruling ZANU-PF party.
Often violent seizures of farms from whites to be handed over to blacks first ordered by Mugabe's government in 2000 disrupted the agriculture-based economy in a country that once exported food.
The economic crisis has been accompanied by a crackdown on Mugabe's political opponents and increasing international isolation.
apnews.myway.com/article/...9TPO0.html

