Bitter Mugabe votes for old opponents in Zimbabwe election
FORMER dictactor Robert Mugabe voted in Zimbabwe’s first election without his name on the ballot paper in four decades yesterday.
Turnout was expected to be high and voting was peaceful – a contrast to the violence seen in past votes during Mr Mugabe’s 37-year rule.
The 94-year-old was met with cheers when he cast his vote in a contest offering Zimbabweans the choice of a record 20 presidential candidates.
Despite the size of the field, there are only two serious contenders – Mr Mugabe’s successor, current president Emmerson Mnangagwa, 75, and opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa.
Mr Chamisa, a 40-year-old lawyer, was also greeted with piercing whistles and cheers as he arrived to vote. He won the backing of Mr Mugabe on Sunday in a shock last-minute intervention by the deposed leader.
Mr Mugabe ruled with an iron fist after Zimbabwe won independence from the UK in 1980, before being forced out in Mr Mnangagwa’s coup last year.
He said on Sunday that he would ‘not vote for those who have illegally taken power’. Despite his toxic legacy, cheering crowds gathered outside the polling station in the capital, Harare. Struggling to walk, he raised his fist to acknowledge them before being assisted by his wife to the voting booth.
After Mr Mnangagwa voted in the central city of Kwekwe, where bystanders were silent and grim-faced, he said he was committed to a Zimbabwe in which people have the ‘freedom to express their views, negative or positive’.
But allegations that the poll was being corrupted started early on election day.
Mr Chamisa took to Twitter to express his concern over ‘a deliberate attempt to suppress and frustrate the urban vote’, but declared: ‘Victory is ours!’
The vote in the major cities is crucial to the opposition while rural areas, in which an estimated 68 per cent of the populatio live, traditionally back the ruling Zanu-PF party. Mr Mugabe emerged from eight months of obscurity on the eve of the election to announce that he would vote for his long-time opponents, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Mr Mnangagwa, a ruthless former intelligence officer nicknamed ‘The Crocodile’, immediately accused him of striking a deal with Mr Chamisa.
Yesterday Mr Mugabe said Mr Chamisa was the only viable candidate and rejected Mr Mnangagwa and the ruling party, saying: ‘I cannot vote for those who have tormented me.’
A credible election after Mr Mugabe’s rule is essential if Zimbabwe is to exit painful sanctions and secure the investment the country desperately needs.
Should any candidate fail to win an absolute majority, a second round will be held on September 8.