A record 23 presidential candidates were cleared on Thursday to run in Zimbabwe’s elections due on July 30, including incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa and young opposition leader Nelson Chamisa, the country’s electoral commission announced.
It is the first election in Zimbabwe since veteran leader Robert Mugabe was ousted following a brief military takeover in November last year, after 37 years in power.
The July election will be a key test for Mnangagwa, nicknamed the ‘Crocodile’, who succeeded the long-serving autocrat Mugabe seven months ago, and remains untested at the ballot box.
He has pledged to hold free and fair elections as he seeks to mend international relations.
Mnangagwa has already invited Western observers, including the European Union and the Commonwealth for the first time in more than a decade, to monitor the polls.
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Source: Seychelles News Agency
