Former president Robert Mugabe said he would vote for Zimbabwe’s opposition in today’s election, turning on one-time allies in the government ahead of the first vote since they ousted him in a de facto coup. The election will see 75-year-old President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a long-time Mugabe ally, face 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa, a lawyer and pastor who is vying to become Zimbabwe’s youngest head of state. Mnangagwa accused his former boss of striking a deal with the opposition leader, but did not provide any evidence. “The choice is clear, you either vote for Mugabe under the guise of Chamisa or you vote for a new Zimbabwe under my leadership and ZANU-PF,” Mnangagwa said in a video on his official Facebook page. Polls, which are unreliable, give Mnangagwa, a former intelligence chief and defence minister only a slim lead over Chamisa, making a runoff on September 8 a possibility. Mugabe, whose 37-year rule came to an end when he was forced to resign in November, told reporters at his mansion in Harare on Sunday that Mnangagwa’s government was unconstitutional and ruled by the gun. “I hope the choice of voting tomorrow 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. “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 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. Mnangagwa, known as “the crocodile”, an animal famed in Zimbabwean lore for its stealth and ruthlessness, was removed as vice president by Mugabe last November to make way for his wife, Grace, to seize power, analysts say. This was too much for army generals who rolled military vehicles through the streets of Harare and kept Mugabe under house arrest until he resigned facing imminent impeachment. Violence fears Mugabe on Sunday said it was “total nonsense” that he wanted his wife to succeed him and claimed that he was preparing to resign at a ZANU-PF congress in December. Agencies
