Zimbabweans voted on Monday in the country’s first election since ageing autocrat Robert Mugabe was ousted last year, with the opposition vowing to overcome alleged ballot fraud and defeat the ruling ZANU-PF.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s former ally in the ZANU-PF party, faces opposition leader Nelson Chamisa of the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) in a historic vote for the southern African nation.
long lines of voters waited outside polling stations from morning, with election authorities saying early signs suggested a high turnout nationwide.
“I just have to do this. I have to see a better Zimbabwe for my kids. Things have been tough,” Tawanda Petru, 28, an unemployed man voting in Mbare, a low-income district of the capital Harare, told.
“I’m going to vote for Chamisa, for change. I am not afraid, I can tell you.”