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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Robert Mugabe: I won't vote for Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe election | Robert Mugabe: I won't vote for Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe election |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Robert Mugabe has said he will not vote for his former party, Zanu-PF, or the current president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, in the country’s historic election on Monday. | Robert Mugabe has said he will not vote for his former party, Zanu-PF, or the current president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, in the country’s historic election on Monday. |
| In his first major intervention since being ousted by the military last November, the 94-year-old former dictator said he would be voting for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the country’s biggest opposition party, and its candidate, Nelson Chamisa. | |
| “I cannot vote for the party or those in power who caused me to be in this condition. I cannot vote for them, I can’t,” Mugabe said at his home in Harare. “He [Chamisa] seems to be doing well at his rallies … I wish to meet him if he wins. Whoever wins, we wish him well … And let us accept the verdict.” | |
| The former autocrat’s decision not to back the party he led to victory in Zimbabwe’s independence war and for 37 years as president is the latest twist in an extraordinary election that will determine the former British colony’s future for decades. | The former autocrat’s decision not to back the party he led to victory in Zimbabwe’s independence war and for 37 years as president is the latest twist in an extraordinary election that will determine the former British colony’s future for decades. |
| It is unclear how the intervention will influence a close contest. Mugabe’s call to vote out what he described as an “unconstitutional and illegal” government may win over some voters, but put off others. | It is unclear how the intervention will influence a close contest. Mugabe’s call to vote out what he described as an “unconstitutional and illegal” government may win over some voters, but put off others. |
| Mugabe described his November ousting as a coup, arguing that his rule was legitimate because he held elections every five years. He denied accusations he had used the army to suppress dissent. | Mugabe described his November ousting as a coup, arguing that his rule was legitimate because he held elections every five years. He denied accusations he had used the army to suppress dissent. |
| “These tanks that roared across the country, whom were they fighting? Who was the enemy? We were fighting ourselves … The army has turned against the very people they fought for. I say no, this is wrong. There should be a big no to guns directing politics,” the former guerilla leader said. | |
| “Let tomorrow be the voice of the people saying never again, never again will we experience … the army being used to thrust one person into power.” | |
| Successive polls in Zimbabwe under Mugabe’s rule were marked by violence and intimidation of opposition activists and supporters. Experts say the current election campaign has been the most peaceful for decades. Zanu-PF and the MDC both held well-attended rallies in Harare on Saturday. | |
| The current government is under pressure to shun the tactics employed in previous elections. Without international approval of the poll, no incoming administration will get the billions of dollars of aid needed to restore Zimbabwe’s shattered economy. | |
| Mugabe denied reports that he had assisted the MDC’s campaign, saying he had never met Chamisa, the party’s 40-year-old presidential candidate. | |
| Mugabe’s controversial second wife Grace sat a few yards away throughout her husband’s sometimes rambling though often lucid two-hour press conference, which took place under a Chinese-style gazebo in the garden of the couple’s sprawling mansion in the suburb of Borrowdale. The political ambitions of Grace, 55, were believed by many to be the catalyst for the army’s decision to intervene in November. Many of her once powerful “G40 faction” are now in exile. | |
| Mugabe railed against the “harassment” of friends and family, listing a series of political allies who had been forced from Zimbabwe since his fall from power. | |
| “We should be left free as a family. I do not accept the denunciation and vilification of my wife that is going on every day. Leave, leave, leave my wife alone. I want Grace to remain my Grace,” he said. | |
| The former administrator posed with her husband for photographs after the press conference. Since being ousted Mugabe has been allowed to travel to Singapore for health checks but has not been seen in public, and is thought to spend most of his days at home. | |
| The frustrations of such a life were evident. Asked if he was unhappy not to be a candidate in the elections – a first in the history of Zimbabwe, which gained its independence in 1980 – Mugabe said it was “painful but a reality”. He also complained of being cold in recent days as temperatures dropped in Harare. | |
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