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Mugabe Holds News Conference Ahead of Election

by VOA News

   Zimbabwe's former president Robert Mugabe says Zimbabweans have not
   been free since the de facto army coup that deposed him from office
   last year. It was not immediately clear what he meant by that
   statement.
   Mugabe is holding a surprise news conference at his residence in
   Harare, on the eve of the country's first election since he was ousted
   from office.
   The former president said the November coup was not necessary because
   he had planned to step down from office in December.
   He also told the press corps that it was "utter nonsense" that he
   wanted his wife Grace to succeed him.
   Political analysts say the catalyst for the military's move to remove
   Mugabe was his dismissal of Vice President Emerson Mnangagwa who was
   well-liked by the military. Mugabe had accused him of treachery. The
   move was viewed by many as a chance for Mugabe to fill the position
   with his widely unpopular wife.
   Mugabe said he would not vote for Mnangagwa Monday.
   Mnangagwa is Zimbabwe's current president and faces opposition leader
   Nelson Chamisa of the Movement for Democratic Change party in the
   landmark vote Monday for the southern African nation.
   Mugabe resigned from his epic 37-year tenure as Zimbabwe's head of
   state after nearly a week under house arrest. He had faced intense
   pressure to step down from the military, his former deputy, the
   powerful war veterans group, and growing numbers of ordinary
   Zimbabweans.
   Mugabe was the only leader Zimbabwe had known since independence in
   1980. In that time, the economy spiraled downward into ruin, the
   infrastructure crumbled and many of the nation's elite were slapped
   with sanctions over allegations of human rights abuses.