Former president rejects successor on eve of vote
HARARE, Zimbabwe — In a surprise address to the nation after months of silence, former President Robert Mugabe emerged just hours before Monday’s historic election declaring that “I will not vote for those who have illegally taken power” and turning his back on the ruling party he long controlled.
Slow and rambling, the 94-year-old Mugabe spoke to reporters Sunday with bitterness about his removal in November under military pressure and amid a ruling party feud.
He was coy about endorsing anyone ahead of the election in which the former deputy that he fired, President Emmerson Mnangagawa, faces a 40-year-old lawyer and pastor, Nelson Chamisa. He indicated, however, that Chamisa was the only viable candidate.
“I cannot vote for those who have tormented me,” Mugabe said in a reference to Mnangagwa, who took office with the military’s support. “I cannot vote for ZANU-PF,” the ruling party that has rejected him as well.
Later on Sunday, Mnangagwa said in a video posted on Facebook that Chamisa had “forged a deal” with Mugabe and that a vote for the opposition leader amounted to an endorsement of the old order.
Chamisa, meanwhile, said at a news conference that he welcomed the vote of Mugabe or any other Zimbabwean and that “you don’t discriminate against voters.”
Many in Zimbabwe knew no other leader but Mugabe, who led the country for 37 years after independence from white minority rule in 1980. What began with optimism crumbled into repression of the opposition, alleged vote-rigging, violent land seizures from white farmers and years of international sanctions.
The southern Africa nation hopes that a credible vote on Monday could get those sanctions lifted and bring badly needed investment for a collapsed economy.