The Third Term reinvented!

The prospect of Bill Clinton who served two terms in the white house going back there if Hilary wins the next election, amounts to a third term in the minds of many Americans. There is mounting aversion to a growing trend of leaders who have had their time in office, crafting clever ways of retaining political power after their legitimate time in office expires.

This week against the current run of analysis, Putin has endorsed Dmitry Medvedev, first deputy prime minister and chairman of the state gas behemoth Gasprom, as his choice to follow him as president in March. If Medvedev does take power, can he keep it?
His decision to ask Putin to be his prime minister if he becomes president is a public recognition that his authority depends on Putin, and that he will be circumscribed by him.

In Pakistan all General Musharraf had to do extend his stay in office was change his manner of dressing. Western concerns have eased, despite a clamp down on political opponents, the judiciary and the press - under a new ordinance, unilaterally enacted by Mr. Musharraf, television journalists face up to three years in jail for broadcasting “anything which defames or brings into ridicule the head of state”.

President General Pervez Musharraf Wednesday relinquished the charge of Chief of the Army Staff - handed over the coveted post to General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani .

And what does all this mean for our African leaders who already have a traditional inclination to extending their stay in office?


Kashikulu hopes President Mbeki, if by some stroke of luck wins this month's conference that will decide who will lead the ANC going into 2009 national elections, will not pull up a Putin move as for Mugabe I truly hope he has not being following events in Moscow or Islamabad.