HARARE, Zimbabwe �� Former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said he'll back the main opposition in Monday's elections, which come eight months after the military briefly seized control and the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front forced him to quit after 37 years in office.
"I cannot vote for Zanu-PF," Mugabe said Sunday at a news conference. "I must say very clearly, I can't vote for those who have tormented me, I can't."
Mugabe was replaced by his former deputy and spy chief Emmerson Mnanagagwa, one of 22 candidates in the presidential race. His only serious challenger is Nelson Chamisa, a 40-year-old lawyer who heads the Movement for Democratic Change. Mugabe said that while he'd never met Chamisa, the MDC represented the only realistic alternative to the ruling party that he helped found in 1963.
Chamisa said he accepted Mugabe's backing.
"I need every supporter," Chamisa said Sunday. "This is do or die, it doesn't matter if it's Mugabe. Every vote counts."
Mugabe's endorsement could work to the detriment of the opposition, which faced violent repression under his rule, according to Rashweat Mukundu, an analyst at the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute in Harare.
"Mugabe is detested by the support base of the MDC," Mukundu said. "His endorsement of Chamisa is a typical indication of Mugabe's kind of politics, which has him at the center and nothing else. It may be a kiss of death for the MDC.'
Mugabe, who made his last public appearance in November, described his removal from office as unlawful, unconstitutional and unnecessary because he resigned as ruling party leader in December. He dismissed reports that he had wanted his, Grace, to succeed him, as "utter nonsense" saying his preferred candidate was former Defense Minister Sydney Sekeramayi.
Mugabe complained that his former colleagues had shunned him and his family had been harassed, arrested and had their property seized. He defended his record in office, during which government-backed militants seized thousands of white-owned farms and the economy went into free-fall.
"Don't forget we were fighting against British colonial rule," Mugabe said. "They had settlers here. We had to remove the settlers. I insisted we had to get the land."
