Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Wednesday announced the presidential and parliamentary elections will be held on August 23, reported CGTN Africa. Voters will vote to choose the president, members of Parliament, and councilors in the elections.
Mnangagwa was elected as the country’s president in 2018 after long-time leader President Robert Mugabe was ousted by a military coup the previous year. Mugabe led the country for nearly four decades. Notably, Zimbabwe has only had two presidents since it gained independence in 1980.
Mnangagwa is seeking a second term in office. He also set June 21 as the date when nomination courts would accept applications by political parties and their candidates to contest in the elections.
Zimbabwean President Mnangagwa was expected to announce the election date on Monday but he later postponed the announcement.
Over 5.8 million people have been registered to vote in the presidential, legislative, and local authority elections.
The ruling ZANU-PF party has already held primary elections to choose candidates for the elections. The other two main opposition parties- MDC-T and Citizens’ Coalition for Change- are yet to present theirs to the electorate.
The 80-year-old Mnangagwa’s main rival is lawyer and pastor Nelson Chamisa, 45, who leads the newly formed Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC). , Chamisa narrowly lost to Mnangagwa, in the 2018 elections.
In case, if there is no candidate gets the majority votes in the presidential election, a run-off will be held on October 2.
According to the Zimbabwean constitution, a presidential election run-off becomes mandatory if the winner fails to get more than 50 percent of the vote.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) opened the rolls for inspection on Saturday to enable potential voters to inspect voters’ rolls in their respective constituencies to check if their voting details were captured properly ahead of the elections. The inspections will end Thursday.
