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 HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Zimbabwe's ruling party endorsed incumbent Robert Mugabe on Friday as its candidate for next year's presidential elections, handing the 83-year-old leader his second political victory in two days in the face of international criticism over a brutal clampdown of the opposition.
Outside observers had said the ruling party was divided over whether Mugabe should remain at the helm of a country he has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980. But the party's central committee endorsed him as a candidate for the 2008 elections, party spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira told state television.
Mugabe received a major boost Thursday when southern African leaders publicly backed him at a summit despite appeals from the United States and other Western countries to denounce his treatment of the opposition.
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