HARARE: Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe, who was ousted in November, said Sunday that he would not vote for his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa in the presidential election.
“For the first time ever we have now a long list of aspirants to power,” Mugabe said at his Blue Roof private residence in Harare.
“I cannot vote for those who tormented me... I will make my choice among the other 22 (candidates) but it is a long list.”
Media were allowed through the gates of the luxury sprawling mansion where chairs were set up on a formal lawn in front of a blue-tiled pagoda to listen.
Zimbabwe goes to the polls Monday in its first election since Mugabe was forced to resign last November after 37 years in power, with allegations mounting of voter fraud and predictions of a disputed result.
President Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s former ally in the ruling ZANU-PF party, faces opposition leader Nelson Chamisa of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in a landmark vote for the southern African nation.
Zimbabwe’s generals shocked the world last year when they seized control and ushered Mnangagwa to power after Mugabe, 94, tried to position his wife Grace, 53, to be his successor.
In his only previous press interviews since his fall, Mugabe admitted in March that “some errors were done” under his authoritarian rule, and said he thought his country was now “topsy turvy.”
“I never thought (Mnangagwa) would be the man who turned against me,” he added.
Zimbabwe’s Mugabe says he will not vote for successor Mnangagwa
Zimbabwe’s Mugabe says he will not vote for successor Mnangagwa
- Robert Mugabe said his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa had turned against him
- Mugabe said he could not vote for someone who had 'tormented' him
Swedish PM rejects Trump’s tariffs threat over Greenland
- “We won’t let ourselves be intimidated,” Kristersson said
- “Only Denmark and Greenland decide questions that concern them”
STOCKHOLM: Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Saturday rejected US President Donald Trump’s threat to European nations of swingeing tariffs if they did not let him acquire Greenland.
“We won’t let ourselves be intimidated,” he said in a message sent to AFP. “Only Denmark and Greenland decide questions that concern them.
“I will always defend my country and our allied neighbors,” he added, stressing that this was “a European question.
“Sweden is currently having intensive discussions with other EU countries, Norway and the United Kingdom to find a joint response,” he added.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday escalated his quest to acquire Greenland, threatening multiple European nations with tariffs of up to 25 percent until his purchase of the Danish territory is achieved.
His threats came as thousands of people protested in the capital of Greenland against his wish to acquire the mineral-rich island at the gateway to the Arctic.
Thousands more protested in Copenhagen and other Danish cities.
