(28 Jul 2018) Zimbabwe's President Emerson Mnangagwa and his main challenger Nelson Chamisa have rallied supporters one last time ahead of Monday's election in a country seeking to move past decades of economic and political paralysis.
Supporters of the 75-year-old Mnangagwa, a former Mugabe deputy, and the 40-year-old Chamisa, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party, rallied at separate venues in Harare, the capital.
Chamisa, a rousing pastor and lawyer with little government experience, promised a convincing defeat of Mnangagwa, saying the president had done his part in helping to liberate Zimbabwe from white minority rule.
The vote will be a first for the southern African nation: Longtime leader Robert Mugabe won't be on the ballot after resigning in November following a military takeover and pressure from the ruling ZANU-PF party that once backed him. The majority of Zimbabwe's 5 million voters grew up under Mugabe's 37-year rule.
A credible vote could help Zimbabwe to shed its longtime status as a global pariah and spur recovery for its collapsed economy, while a contentious election would prevent the lifting of years of international sanctions.
Past elections under Mugabe were marred by violence and intimidation against the opposition and by alleged vote-rigging. Foreign observers were shunned.
Now Mnangagwa, once Mugabe's enforcer, praises "this freedom we are enjoying" and dozens of foreign observers have spread throughout the country, including teams from the United States, the European Union, the Commonwealth and the African Union.
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