{"id":32688,"date":"2017-02-20T01:20:42","date_gmt":"2017-02-20T01:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/mugabe-92-says-zimbabweans-see-no-replacement-for\/"},"modified":"2017-02-20T01:22:55","modified_gmt":"2017-02-20T01:22:55","slug":"mugabe-92-says-zimbabweans-see-no-replacement-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/mugabe-92-says-zimbabweans-see-no-replacement-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Mugabe, 92, says Zimbabweans see no replacement for him"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Leader in power since 1980 insists he will contest 2018 elections, by which time he will be 94 years old.}<\/p>\n

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has said his ruling ZANU-PF party and the people of Zimbabwe see no viable successor to him for next year’s general elections.<\/p>\n

Mugabe has been in power since 1980 and in December his party confirmed him as its candidate for the next presidential election expected in mid-2018, when he will be 94.<\/p>\n

The world’s oldest national leader, Mugabe turns 93 on Tuesday, with a celebration party planned for next Saturday. <\/p>\n

“They want me to stand for elections, they want me to stand for elections everywhere in the party,” Mugabe said in comments to state media.<\/p>\n

“The majority of the people feel that there is no replacement, successor who to them is acceptable, as acceptable as I am.”<\/p>\n

Mugabe has avoided naming a successor and his party is divided between factions jostling to succeed him.<\/p>\n

On Friday, his wife Grace Mugabe said the 92-year-old would be the voters’ choice even after he dies.<\/p>\n

“One day when God decides that Mugabe dies, we will have his corpse appear as a candidate on the ballot paper,” Grace, seen as a possible successor to her ailing husband, told a party rally in Buhera, southeast of the capital Harare.<\/p>\n

“You will see people voting for Mugabe as a corpse. I am seriously telling you, just to show people how people love their president.”<\/p>\n

Grace, who was appointed leader of ZANU-PF’s women’s wing in a surprise move two years ago, is well known for her fiery speeches and verbal attacks on her husband’s opponents.<\/p>\n

In 2015, she led a campaign which led to the ousting of deputy president Joice Mujuru, accusing Mujuru of fanning factionalism, plotting to topple Mugabe and corruption and bribery.<\/p>\n

Grace has previously pledged to push Mugabe in his wheelchair to election rallies if needed.<\/p>\n

\"Grace<\/figure>\n

Source:Al Jazeera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Leader in power since 1980 insists he will contest 2018 elections, by which time he will be 94 years old.} Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has said his ruling ZANU-PF party and the people of Zimbabwe see no viable successor to him for next year’s general elections. Mugabe has been in power since 1980 and in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[100],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-32688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-africa","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32688"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=32688"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=32688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}