Zimbabweans Elect 1st President since Mugabe’s Removeal

Local Editor

Zimbabweans began voting Monday in the first election since the removal of former president Robert Mugabe, a watershed vote they hope will rid the country of its global pariah status and spark a recovery in its failed economy.

The election will see 75-year-old President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a long-time Mugabe ally, face 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa, a lawyer and pastor who is vying to become Zimbabwe's youngest head of state.

Voting started at 7 am and will end at 7 pm.

Polls give former intelligence chief Mnangagwa, who took over as president after the army ousted Mugabe in a bloodless coup in November, only a slim lead over Chamisa.

There will be a runoff on Sept. 8 if no candidate wins more than half the votes.

Nicknamed "the Crocodile", an animal famed in Zimbabwean lore for its stealth and ruthlessness, Mnangagwa has pledged to revive a moribund economy, attract foreign investment and mend racial and tribal divisions.

Queues of eager voters snaked around the streets of the capital Harare from before sunrise.

For Zimbabwe to be welcomed back into the international fold, end painful sanctions and secure the donor funding program it needs to stem chronic cash shortages, observers have to sign off on the vote as being credible at least.

There have been reports of intimidation and coercion in the build-up to the vote and state media is biased towards the ZANU-PF, but there is a consensus that the process has been better than before.

Mnangagwa has welcomed in foreign media and international observers from the European Union, the United States and the Commonwealth, who are watching polling stations across the southern African country.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team