Zimbabwe: Mnangagwa plays for election calm after assassination attempt

Zimbabwe’s incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s suggestion that opponents in his ruling ZANU-PF party and not the opposition were responsible for an explosion at a campaign rally has probably strengthened his bid to win next month’s general elections, analysts said.

The first such attack in Zimbabwe’s history, where he was addressing a campaign rally, at the White City stadium in the second-largest city of Bulawayo, immediately drew promises from Mnangagwa, 75, that the July 30 vote will be held on time and the opposition can campaign freely.
He suggested the authors of the explosion were among those who opposed his rise to power culminating in becoming president after former president Robert Mugabe resigned.

“There is no doubt that the White City bombing has translated into political sympathy for Mnangagwa by portraying him as a victim,” said Rashweat Mukundu, an analyst at the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute.
“It serves him well as it shows apparent insight into his reaction to crisis as a reconciler rather than a vengeful leader.”

“The campaign so far has been conducted in a free and peaceful environment, and we will not allow this cowardly act to get in our way as we move towards elections,” Mnangagwa said in a Facebook post.

While forensic scientists and the police continue to probe the assassination attack that injured about 50 more people on Saturday, Mnangagwa told state radio, “I know who my enemies are. They have tried before.”

He repeated accusations that elements within the governing ZANU-PF had tried to poison him in August last year.
He later fled the country after Mugabe fired him as vice president. He returned in November after a 6-day standoff saw parliament and the military force Mugabe to resign.

More recently, Mnangagwa’s battles were inside ZANU-PF itself, where he was engaged in a bitter power struggle with a faction of mainly younger party members known as the Generation 40 that backed Mugabe’s wife, Grace.

“As far as I can tell, this is another dimension of the intra-Zanu-PF factionalism,” said Eldred Masunungure, a political science professor at the University of Zimbabwe. “This is likely the work of an ejected member of the party.”

Source: Bloomberg News