Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe gets Party’s Endorsement for 2018 Elections

Zimbabwe’s ruling party, Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) has endorsed 92-year-old incumbent president, Robert Mugabe as its favourite for the 2018 election.

Th decision was made at a meeting on Saturday, December 17th 2016.

Accorsing to its deputy secretary Eunice Sandi Moyo, “The congress voiced its support to the president and first secretary comrade Robert Mugabe as the sole candidate for the forthcoming 2018 elections.”

Thousands of supporters at the party’s annual conference applauded the endorsement; the party’s youth wing even proposed that Mugabe should rule for life with broad powers.

Supporters were chanting in Shona language “tongai, tongai baba” meaning “rule, rule, father”.

Mugabe has been in power since 1980, when the country gained independence from Britain.

Opposition groups have described such adulation as a sign that the president and his loyalists are out of touch with the desperation of a nation that is suffering massive unemployment, cash shortages and company closures.

Despite the praise, the 92 year old president has acknowledged that some people within the ruling party have wanted him to quit.

“Let us stop fighting each other,” he said, referring to the succession fights that have engulfed his party.

Photo Credit: Diego Azubel-Pool/Getty Images