Zimbabwe to have new President soon; elections held today

Harare, July 30: Presidential, Parliamentary and local elections are being held in Zimbabwe today. More than five million voters are expected to exercise their franchise. There are 23 candidates on the Presidential ballot. A Presidential run-off vote is scheduled for 8th of September if no candidate wins at least 50 percent in the first round.

 

The country is going to polls for the first time since former President Robert Mugabe was forced to resign by his generals in November last year. He had ruled the country for 37 years. President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe's former ally in the ruling ZANU-PF party, faces Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa of the Movement for Democratic Change in the landmark vote for the southern African nation.

“I hope the choice of voting will throw, thrust away the military government and bring us back to constitutionality,” said a frail-looking Mugabe, in a rambling off the cuff speech that lasted almost an hour.

Mugabe, one of the last “Big Men” of African politics, still looms large over Zimbabwean politics and he may yet influence the first vote without his name on the ballot paper since the country gained independence from Britain in 1980.

Though he became increasingly unpopular with most Zimbabweans as mismanagement and corruption sent the economy into decline, he retains support in his rural heartland where supporters remain bitter about the manner of his removal.