SOUTH Australia will be saddled with a ''lame duck'' premier after Mike Rann announced yesterday he would stay in the job for another 10 weeks.
Mr Rann made the announcement with his successor, the Education Minister Jay Weatherill, beside him.
The Labor veteran said he would leave on October 20. He had wanted to remain Premier until March but he had been rolled by factional bosses.
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''I was told that it may now be better to vacate the premiership sooner than originally intended,'' said Mr Rann, who arrived home from a trade mission to India on Sunday night.
Mr Rann has led South Australian Labor for 17 years and has been Premier since January 2002. His forced early departure denies him the opportunity to beat the South Australian Labor records set by the former premiers Don Dunstan and John Bannon.
A displeased Mr Rann said there was no reason for him to be leaving now.
''With more than two years to go before the next election, it remains my belief that there is no pressing urgency to make the transition in leadership right now,'' he said.
Mr Rann was given his marching orders 10 days ago when his Treasurer, Jack Snelling, and the right-wing union boss, Peter Malinauskas, visited him to say the Left and Right factions had chosen Mr Weatherill as his successor.
Mr Snelling denied he had told Mr Rann to leave early but Mr Rann disputed this yesterday by revealing he had already told party powerbrokers he wanted to stay until March.
Liberals accused Mr Weatherill of being weak for not blasting Mr Rann out straight away, and said the state effectively had a lame duck leader.
"This has been more painful to watch than the slow death of a wildebeest being torn down by lion cubs,'' the federal South Australian Liberal frontbencher, Christopher Pyne, said.
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