Assassination attempt fails to delay election
Our Foreign Staff ZIMBABWEAN leaders have ruled out delaying next month’s election after an explosion that injured at least 49 people at a campaign rally.
State media said the explosion in the opposition stronghold of Bulawayo on Saturday was an attempt to assassinate President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Both of Zimbabwe’s vice-presidents were injured but Mr Mnangagwa, who had just finished addressing the rally, was unhurt.
As Mr Mnangagwa called for peace yesterday, vice-president Constantino Chiwenga, who had bruises on his face, vowed that the presidential election on July 30 would go ahead despite the attack. “Let me be very clear, nothing will stop the election in Zimbabwe, nothing at all,” Mr Chiwenga told supporters. “That act of terrorism is nothing.”
George Charamba, the president’s spokesman, told the state-run Sunday Mail newspaper that Mr Mnangagwa “will not be driven by vengefulness or a spirit of retribution”.
The main opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa, condemned the attack.
Mr Mnangagwa, 75, has pledged the election, the first since Robert Mugabe stepped down in November, will be free and fair. He has invited Western election observers, rejected as biased by Mr Mugabe.
♦ Two people were killed in a grenade attack in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa on Saturday. More than 150 people were injured in the attack on a rally for new prime minister Abiy Ahmed.