Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe says Zimbabweans have not been free since the de facto army coup that deposed him from office last year. It was not immediately clear what he meant by that statement.
Mugabe is holding a surprise news conference at his residence in Harare, on the eve of the country’s first election since he was ousted from office.
The former president said the November coup was not necessary because he had planned to step down from office in December.
He also told the press corps that it was “utter nonsense” that he wanted his wife Grace to succeed him.
Political analysts say the catalyst for the military’s move to remove Mugabe was his dismissal of Vice President Emerson Mnangagwa who was well-liked by the military. Mugabe had accused him of treachery. The move was viewed by many as a chance for Mugabe to fill the position with his widely unpopular wife.
Mugabe said he would not vote for Mnangagwa Monday.
Mnangagwa is Zimbabwe’s current president and faces opposition leader Nelson Chamisa of the Movement for Democratic Change party in the landmark vote Monday for the southern African nation.
Mugabe resigned from his epic 37-year tenure as Zimbabwe’s head of state after nearly a week under house arrest. He had faced intense pressure to step down from the military, his former deputy, the powerful war veterans group, and growing numbers of ordinary Zimbabweans.
Mugabe was the only leader Zimbabwe had known since independence in 1980. In that time, the economy spiraled downward into ruin, the infrastructure crumbled and many of the nation’s elite were slapped with sanctions over allegations of human rights abuses.
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