HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Zimbabweans are worried about their country's fate after the increasingly isolated President Robert Mugabe did not resign in a televised speech as many had expected.
"Arrogant Mugabe disregards Zanu PF," a newspaper headline said, a reference to the ruling party that has demanded he resign by noon Monday or face impeachment.
Opposition activists planned more protests to pressure Mugabe, the world's oldest head of state, to step down after 37 year in power.
Some ruling party members say an impeachment process likely wouldn't lead to Mugabe's immediate resignation and could take days to complete. Mugabe has been stripped of his party leadership but said in Sunday night's speech he would preside over a party congress next month.
Some people in the capital, Harare, are now more cautious about talking to reporters. That contrasts with the jubilation and open condemnation of Mugabe over the weekend.
Mugabe in Sunday night's speech said defied calls to quit.
The 93-year-old president acknowledged what he said were "a whole range of concerns" of Zimbabweans about the chaotic state of the government and the economy, but he stopped short of what many people in the southern African nation were hoping for - a statement that he was stepping down.
The once-formidable Mugabe is now a virtually powerless figure, making his continued incumbency all the more unusual and extending Zimbabwe's political limbo. He is largely confined to his private home by the military. Huge crowds poured into the streets of Harare, the capital, on Saturday to demand that he leave office.
Yet the president sought to project authority in his speech, which he delivered after shaking hands with security force commanders, one of whom leaned over a couple of times to help Mugabe find his place on the page he was reading.
The Central Committee of the ruling ZANU-PF party voted to dismiss Mugabe as party leader at a meeting earlier Sunday.
Mugabe has discussed his possible resignation on two occasions with military commanders after they effectively took over the country on Tuesday. The commanders were troubled by his firing of his longtime deputy and the positioning of unpopular first lady Grace Mugabe to succeed him.
"I, as the president of Zimbabwe, as their commander in chief, do acknowledge the issues they have drawn my attention to, and do believe that these were raised in the spirit of honesty and out of deep and patriotic concern for the stability of our nation and for the welfare of our people," Mugabe said.
The deputy whom Mugabe fired, former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, is positioned to become Zimbabwe's next leader after the party committee made him its nominee to take over from Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from white minority rule in 1980.
The Central Committee meeting replaced Mugabe as party chief with Mnangagwa and recalled the first lady as head of the women's league, in decisions set to be ratified at the party congress next month.
The military appears to favor a voluntary resignation to maintain a veneer of legality in the political transition. Mugabe, in turn, is likely using whatever leverage he has left to try to preserve his legacy or even protect himself and his family from possible prosecution.