Zimbabweans began voting in the first election since the removal of former president Robert Mugabe, a watershed vote they hope will rid the country of its global pariah status and spark a recovery in its failed economy. The election will see 75-year-old President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a long-time Mugabe ally, face 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa, a lawyer and pastor who is vying to become Zimbabwe's youngest head of state.
General elections were held on 30 July 2018 in Zimbabwe to elect the president and members of both houses of parliament. The likelihood of the elections taking place were called into doubt following the 2017 coup. On 22 November 2017, a ZANU-PF spokesman said that Emmerson Mnangagwa would serve out the remainder of Robert Mugabe's term before the elections due to be held during or before September 2018. On 20 March 2018, Mnangagwa said he was looking forward to holding elections in July 2018. On 18 January 2018, President Mnangagwa spoke to the Financial Times in an interview, in which he invited the EU, UN and the Commonwealth to send missions to Zimbabwe in order to monitor the elections. On the eve of Zimbabwe's election, 29 July, Mugabe gave a surprise press conference during which he stated he would not vote for Mnangagwa and ZANU-PF, the party he founded. Instead, he expressed the wish to vote for his long-time rival party, the MDC of Nelson Chamisa.
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