“You’ll suffer without me” – Zimbabwe leader told supporters

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Wednesday told Zimbabweans that they would be lost if they failed to re-elect him, in a clarion call for them to vote for him in the upcoming election.

Mr Mnangagwa also told his supporters that they would suffer if they voted for the opposition, whom he termed as clueless failures.

Regardless, the president said that nobody would stop him or his party from winning the elections, amid accusations of political crackdowns and intimidation against opposition politicians and suspicions of planned election rigging.

“We, Zanu-PF, will not stand by and let our people suffer at the hands of these clueless opposition-led councils. We must kick them out on 23 August,” he told the more than 150,000 supporters who attended his campaign rally in the capital Harare.

According to the president, Zanu-PF, which has ruled Zimbabwe since the country’s independence in 1980, is the only party with the capacity to lead the country.

Zimbabwe is set for presidential and parliamentary elections on 23 August.

The presidential race has attracted 11 candidates, including the 80-year-old incumbent president and 45-year-old Nelson Chamisa, who leads the Citizen’s Coalition for Change (CCC) and whom many Zimbabweans consider to be the most formidable challenger to Mr Mnangagwa.

Mr Mnangagwa formally assumed the presidency of Zimbabwe in 2018, following a military coup that toppled dictator Robert Mugabe in 2017, ending his 37-year rule of the southern African country.

During his rule, Zimbabweans have continued to grapple with the historical challenges of hyperinflation and runaway poverty and unemployment.

With BBC