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Zimbabwe will surely have an option in its presidential polls this coming March 2008 as former finance minister Simba Makoni takes an aggressive move of filing his candidacy to be the highest leader of the land. During his interview, Makoni showed his strong willingness to challenge incumbent President Robert Mugabe to be the next top leader of Zimbabwe. He is running as an independent candidate.

He told the reporters that he takes all criticisms and possible risks of being a candidate for presidency.

Although he doesn’t have a strong grassroots support base, Makoni is seen as a strong contender of Mugabe. The former comes from the moderate wing of the Zanu-PF, a strong political body in Zimbabwe.

Both candidates come from two opposing factions. For Makoni, he believes it is about time to end the extreme hardships that all of the citizens in the country are enduring for the last 10 years.

Zanu-PF endorsed Mugabe in Congress in December as its official bearer for president in March 29 polls. But there were already rumors that someone from the same party would stand to contend him.

It was only Makoni who took a brave stance of challenging Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s long running public leader.

Makoni, 57, said his running has been a result of his grief toward the national hardships that the citizens are suffering from and criticized the present administration for Zimbabwe’s economic crisis.

As Zimbabwe is looking for dramatic changes in the country, Makoni’s candidacy is a hope to behold, according to political analysts.

For a decade, according to reports, many of the citizens are fed up to Mugabe’s wrong priorities and mismanagement and will look for better leadership in the executive branch.