HARARE: Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Friday the ruling ZANU-PF should aim to hold free and fair elections always, while his party endorsed him as its leader and official candidate for the top job when the vote comes.

The international community will be closely watching the next elections, due by the end of July, following last month’s de facto military coup which ended Robert Mugabe’s 37-year reign.

There is talk that the vote could be brought forward to as early as March.

Mnangagwa, 75, who was sworn in as president on Nov.24, was addressing a special congress in downtown Harare which endorsed him as the party’s leader and presidential candidate in the elections.

“Democracy bids that as a political party, ZANU-PF must always compete for office through pitting itself against opposition parties in elections which must be credible, free, fair and transparent,” he told about 6,000 party members.

Since he assumed power, Mnangagwa has consistently mentioned the credibility of the elections, a sign of the vote’s importance in shoring up Zimbabwe’s democratic credibility.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said late last month that financial support for the new government to stabilise its currency system and help it clear World Bank and African Development Bank arrears depended on “democratic progress.”

Reuters