Zimbabwe pledges vote will go ahead despite attack

CHITUNGWIZA, ZIMBABWE: Zimbabwe ruled out Sunday delaying July elections after a bomb blast at a ruling party rally in which President Emmerson Mnangagwa narrowly escaped unharmed.

Vice President Constantino Chiwenga — who was among those injured in Saturday´s attack — said the first parliamentary and presidential polls of the post-Robert Mugabe era would go ahead as scheduled on July 30. “Let me be very clear, nothing will stop the election in Zimbabwe, nothing at all,” Chiwenga told a rally of the ruling ZANU-PF party in the town of Chitungwiza near Harare.

“That act of terrorism in Bulawayo is nothing. It does not deter anyone,” he said, adding that no political rallies would be cancelled and urging fellow politicians to “continue to campaign peacefully”.

Footage from Saturday´s event showed a device exploding and plumes of smoke billowing around Mnangagwa as he descended from the podium at the White City stadium in Zimbabwe´s second largest city Bulawayo. Mnangagwa — who took power after Mugabe´s ouster in November — said he was the target of the attack, which the state media is describing as an assassination attempt. Police said 49 people, including Chiwenga and fellow Vice President Kembo Mohadi, were injured, some seriously, and that investigations were ongoing. It is not known who carried out the attack, and there has been no claim of responsibility. While Bulawayo has long been a bastion of opposition to the ZANU-PF and it was Mnangagwa´s first rally in the city, commentators suggest the attack could have been sparked by internal party ructions.