Vote against my party, says Mugabe
FORMER Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe said he would vote for the opposition in today’s election, turning on one-time allies ahead of the first vote since they ousted him.
The poll will see President Emmerson Mnangagwa, 75, a long-time Mugabe ally, face Nelson Chamisa, 40, a lawyer and pastor who is vying to become Zimbabwe’s youngest head of state.
Polls, which are unreliable, give former intelligence chief Mnangagwa, known as “the crocodile”, a slim lead.
Mugabe, 94, whose 37-year rule ended when he was forced to resign in November, told reporters at his mansion in Harare yesterday that Mnangagwa’s government was unconstitutional and ruled by the gun.
In a rambling off-the-cuff speech that lasted almost an hour a frail-looking Mugabe said: “I hope the choice of voting tomorrow will throw, thrust away the military government and bring us back to constitutionality. I said I can’t vote for those who have caused me to be in this situation, so there is Chamisa left.”
Mugabe, one of the last “big men” of African politics, still looms large over Zimbabwe and may influence the first vote despite his name not being on the ballot paper for the first time since the country gained independence from Britain in 1980.
Though he became unpopular with most Zimbabweans as mismanagement and corruption sent the economy into decline, he retains support in his rural heartland.