Let me see if I have this New York Times take on the Zimbabwe situation straight. Allies of dictator Robert Mugabe, who is in his 80s, are worried that Mugabe is starting to lose it and may not be up for another reelection campaign. So there's trying to schedule the campaign sooner rather than later, so that Mugabe is up to it.
First of all, if he's not up for running for office, how can he be up for continuing to govern? And besides, didn't Mugabe pretty indisputably rig his last election? Who's to see he won't do that again, and what's to stop him? And why hasn't this wave of revolution against tyrants reached Zimbabwe yet?