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ZIMBABWE: Peaceful' Zimbabwe election in 4-5 months: president






Emmerson Mnangagwa indicated he wants to resolve disputes with the West and open Zimbabwe up to foreign investment

Zimbabwe will hold elections in four or five months, the new president announced on Thursday, a sign the country ruled for decades by autocratic leader Robert Mugabe is on the path towards true democracy.
However, the announcement came as the main opposition party accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government of secretly deploying thousands of soldiers in rural areas to help sway the election in his favour.
The elections will be the first not involving Mugabe since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980. Voting for the presidency, parliament, and local government will be peaceful, Mnangagwa said.
"Zimbabwe is going for elections in four to five months' time and we have to preach peace, peace and peace because we know it is good for us and we have no doubt that we will have peaceful elections," Mnangagwa was quoted as saying by the official Herald newspaper during an official trip to Mozambique.
"The MDC is ... deeply concerned by the continued militarisation of villages around the country. We have solid and incontrovertible evidence pointing to the fact that thousands of army officers in civilian attire have been deployed into the countryside for the purposes of carrying out clandestine political campaigns on behalf of ZANU-PF," a MDC statement said.
Under the constitution, Zimbabwe should hold elections between July 22 and August 22, but parliament can choose to dissolve itself, triggering an earlier vote. ZANU-PF holds a two-thirds majority in parliament.
Western countries imposed harsh sanctions on Zimbabwe over land seizures from white farmers and alleged vote-rigging under Mugabe.
Little investment in agriculture - the backbone of the economy - has been made over the past two decades because of disputes over compensation between former white farmers and the government.
Resolving the land issue could unlock foreign investment in agriculture and help mend ties between Harare and the West.

Source: Aljazeera 

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