Masvingo: Zimbabwe’s 92-year-old president, Robert Mugabe, was endorsed on Saturday as the ruling party’s candidate in a national election scheduled for 2018.
The leader was endorsed by all party structures at the meeting held in Masvingo, 300 kilometres southeast of the capital Harare.
The congress voiced “its support to the president and first secretary comrade Robert Mugabe as the sole candidate for the forthcoming 2018 elections,” said deputy secretary Eunice Sandi Moyo.
The endorsement was met with resounding applause from thousands of supporters attending the annual conference, chanting in Shona language, tongai, tongai baba meaning “rule, rule father”.
Mugabe, 92, has been in power since independence from British colonial rule in 1980 has avoided naming a successor or laying out plans to retire. He once joked that he would rule until he turned 100. Mugabe, who won the 2013 election that was marred by allegations of voting irregularities, has seemed frail at times but still travels widely.
The absence of a clear successor has sparked infighting, including verbal exchanges on social media, in recent weeks between factions angling for his position.
