Mugabe speaks on Zimbabwe, Mnangagwa first time since ouster

A high turnout of voters characterised nearly every polling station in the constituency early in the morning.

European Union chief observer Elmar Brok said many voters, particularly young women, left voting queues in frustration at long delays.

Piercing whistles and cheers greeted Chamisa as he voted outside Harare. After counting his vote, he say his prayer is that whoever wins, puts Zimbabwe first.

“We will win this election to the extent it’s free and fair.it’s a done deal”, he told the BBC.

“When I arrived here (Freedom Square), my mind travelled back to February when we brought Tsvangirai’s body here before burial in Buhera. We must have a democratic constitution because that is what we fought for”, he said.

The former president said he would not vote for current president Emmerson Mnangagwa, who succeeded him. Mnangagwa has asked the country to let bygones be bygones, but many recall his role as state security minister during the Matabeleland massacres in the 1980s when the army killed thousands of people as Mugabe moved against a political rival.

“They don’t know the law”.

“I just have to do this”.

Mr Mnangagwa tweeted that Zimbabweans should vote with “peace in [their] hearts”.

Speaking from his home in the capital, Harare, on Sunday, the former president again said he had been “sacked” as part of a military coup and that he left office in order to “avoid conflict”.

Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe spoke slowly, but appeared in good health sitting in a blue-tiled pagoda outside his sprawling luxury mansion in Harare.

“Even the people (staff) who are here can testify that they were not given any cent. People (supporters) who are here came on their own because we had no resources from the party”.

Over 5.6 million people registered to vote, out of whom 43.6% are under 35 years.

How were candidates received at polling stations?

The MDC leader told journalists: “I am excited that Zimbabweans have expressed themselves (and I am) hoping that the ballot in the rural areas is not a distorted one, but we have no doubt that we have won this election”. The queues are moving very slowly, I have been in the queue for more than three hours now. I can’t vote for ZANU-PF.

Mugabe, one of the last “Big Men” of African politics, still looms large over Zimbabwean society and his endorsement of the opposition may yet influence the first vote without his name on the ballot paper since independence from Britain in 1980.

Mnangagwa, who is accused of involvement in election violence and fraud under Mugabe, invited global observers – including the previously-banned European Union team – to the poll. “That is our finding”, he said. I have to see a better Zimbabwe for my kids.