Mugabe predicts ‘90% poll victory’

President Robert Mugabe has launched his party’s campaign for the 31 July general elections, predicting a 90% victory for Zanu-PF. But the 89-year-old leader warned it was a “do-or-die struggle” and to prepare for a “battle for survival”.

In an address that lasted well over an hour, Mr Mugabe urged the Zanu-PF faithful in 2013 to avoid the violence of five years ago. “Let’s kick our opponents with votes. But please no violence. Let’s have an election without violence, without intimidation,” he said.

But earlier in the day Zanu PF youths spent the day closing businesses in the Harare suburbs of Mbare and Highfields while forcing residents to attend Mugabe’s rally. Some Nehanda Radio listeners reported seeing women in Mbare being forcibly given Zanu PF regalia and told to go to the rally.

The party also roped in musicians Jah Prayzah and Mathias Mhere to try and draw crowds for the rally which was dubbed a Manifesto Launch. Still they managed between 5000 to 7000 supporters in attendance, a far cry from the 200 000 who thronged the same venue when Mugabe came back from exile in 1980.

Jonathan Moyo, a member of Zanu-PF’s politburo, said he expected a “huge and emphatic victory this time round”. The party had “a very clear policy… on indigenisation and economic empowerment of the people of Zimbabwe”, he told the BBC’s Focus on Africa radio programme.

“There’s no other party with any other programme that competes significantly or seriously with Zanu-PF’s policies for the next five years,” he said.

Mugabe launched his re-election campaign with a fiery warning to the 15-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional bloc that Zimbabwe could pull out amid demands for a free and fair vote.

“Let it be known that we are in SADC voluntarily. If SADC decides to do stupid things, let it be known that we can withdraw from SADC.”

The regional bloc has pressed Mugabe to roll back his decision to hold elections on July 31, in order to allow time for a series of reforms that would limit the military’s role in politics and strip ghost voters from the electoral roll.

As he issued the threat to leave SADC, Mugabe also scolded Lindiwe Zulu, a envoy of South African President Jacob Zuma, who has been the chief mediator on the Zimbabwe crisis. “Did such a person think that we as a country would take heed of this streetwoman’s stupid utterances,” said Mugabe.