Or even, muse some, a bid for a third mandate by President Chirac, a man who has always enjoyed both the pursuit of power and its trappings?
For instance, the Constitution has been amended to allow A. Wade to run for a third mandate in the 2012 Presidential election, despite the constitutional two-term limit (Chen, 2013).
It could have signalled the start of his bid for a second mandate, but for his emotional tone, his broken voice.
The former president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, has said she will run for a second mandate in the November poll.
The 78-year-old has been Fifa's leader since 1998, and he said: "I have announced to the executive committee... that I will accept the demands of different associations and federations (to stand for election) to serve Fifa for a fifth mandate".
Therefore, if Italian party leaders converge on a second mandate for Monti, he may have to follow up on his pledge to "be there" for Italy, if the country's political forces ask him to stay on.
For the right of the party, conference has been a sombre affair, settling uneasily into a second mandate for Jeremy Corbyn, a leader they think can't win a general election.
Mr. Howard, 62, a conservative re-elected in November for a third term with a bipartisan mandate to deter illegal immigrants, is unmoved by the protesters.
With a general election scheduled in Germany for Sunday, a poll at which the chancellor is likely to win a mandate for a third term, speculation is rife about Merkel's political course, especially on foreign policy.
In Rwanda, meanwhile, baskets and bundles have been arriving at parliament, stuffed with petitions calling on the deputies to amend the constitution so that President Paul Kagame can run for a third term when his current mandate is up, in 2017.
Merkel emerged triumphant from the election with a mandate for a third term, but her conservative bloc fell a handful of seats short of a majority in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament.
