Zimbabwean President Mugabe (93) shows no signs of stepping down

Zimbabwes president Mugabe.Photo: eikimedia.org

Robert Mugabe, who turned  93 years on Tuesday, repeats that he will fo for the presidential election in 2018.

A comprehensive celebration of Mugabe, who has been the country’s president since white-minority rule fell in 1980, is scheduled Saturday.

The world’s oldest head of state reiterated on his birthday that he will stand in the presidential election next year, where he is nominated as the ruling ZANU-PF party’s candidate.

This despite the fact that he at the end of the next presidential term will be 99 years old, and that the former prosperous Zimbabwe is affected by an economic crisis and allegations of human rights violations and irregularities in the elections.

Mugabe says he is still popular, and that no one is qualified to replace him.

– Most people want the president to remain, and the number of people who would be disappointed, is huge. I will not disappoint them, he said in a birthday interview with the state television channel ZBC.

Mugabe also celebrates his wife Grace, who last week went out and supported her husband.

She stated that ZANU-PF should run with Mugabe corpse for president if he dies before the elections, which are scheduled to take place on 31 July 2018.

The president describes her as “largely accepted by the people”, and said the female part of the ZANU-PF had chosen her as leader because of her political ambitions.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today