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News > World

Zimbabwe to Hold 1st Elections Since Mugabe Left Office

  • Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe looks on before casting his vote in Highfields outside Harare, Zimbabwe July 31, 2013.

    Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe looks on before casting his vote in Highfields outside Harare, Zimbabwe July 31, 2013. | Photo: Reuters

Published 18 March 2018
Opinion

Mugabe, in his first comments since he stepped down, said last week that Mnangagwa's rule was "illegitimate" and a "disgrace".

Zimbabwe's first presidential and parliamentary elections since the end of former President Robert Mugabe's long rule will take place in July, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said Saturday.

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The polls will be the first major test of the new leader, who took power in November after a de facto military coup forced the 94-year-old Mugabe to resign.

They will also be the first without Mugabe's name on the ballot since independence from Britain in 1980.

"As a nation, party and government, we are looking forward to very peaceful, transparent and harmonised elections in July this year," Mnangagwa told reporters after a meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Saturday night.

"I have already invited all political parties in Zimbabwe to a roundtable where we all commit ourselves to non-violence," he added.

Mnanaggwa will have to announce a date in an official notice. He has said he would invite Western observers, who had been banned under Mugabe's rule.

The state-owned weekly Sunday Mail said a European Union pre-election team was expected in Harare Monday.

The EU head of mission in Zimbabwe, Phillipe Van Damme, told the paper it would meet the president, political party leaders, and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

Mugabe, in his first comments since he stepped down, said last week that Mnangagwa's rule was "illegitimate" and a "disgrace".

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