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AFP
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Sunday vowed to reject a draft constitution that does not reflect views gathered during a public outreach campaign marred by violence and intimidation.

"The issue is, what is not the views of the people ... we will reject," Mugabe said in an interview with The Sunday Mail, ahead of his 88th birthday on Tuesday.

He accused Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) of seeking to manipulate the draft constitution to gain advantage at the next elections.

"I think some of the issues are just their own ideas that were slotted in by those who thought this would help them as parties, but did not come from the outreach programme to gather public views.

"It is the thinking of the MDC. They are afraid. They are just cowards."

Mugabe's remarks came after the state-owned Herald newspaper published what it said was a draft of the constitution which had a clause stating that a person who has served two terms as president cannot stand in new elections.

Mugabe has been in power since 1980.

He also admitted to jostling in his party among those who want to succeed him but said none of the contenders was strong enough.

He said "you cannot avoid" factions battling each other to succeed him.

"But they are not as serious. There is no one who can stand and win at the moment. You have got to groom a candidate. You can't just get someone and put them in the forefront. You must groom a successor."

Mugabe and Tsvangirai formed a power-sharing government in 2009 to mend the economy and avoid a descent into full-fledged conflict in the wake of a bloody presidential run-off election.

Under the pact the two political rivals agreed to a raft of reforms including amending electoral and media laws and drafting a new charter to pave the way to fresh polls.

But work on the new constitution has run in fits and starts, hindered by attacks on meetings by supporters' of Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.

Mugabe has pushed for new elections this year, but the constitution-drafting commission says a referendum on the charter could not be held before August, meaning that elections would likely not take place until next year.