HARARE: Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe, who was ousted in November, said yesterday that he would not vote for his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa in the presidential election, reports AFP.

“For the first time ever we have now a long list of aspirants to power,” Mugabe said at his Blue Roof private residence in the capital Harare on the eve of the vote. “I cannot vote for those who tormented me... I will make my choice among the other 22 (candidates), but it is a long list.”

Mugabe spoke slowly but appeared in good health sitting in a blue-tiled pagoda set on a lawn outside the sprawling luxury mansion in the upmarket suburb of Harare. “I was sacked from the party I founded, ZANU-PF,” he said. “I was regarded now as an enemy, but... how come that I am treated now as a nonentity, an opponent?”

Zimbabwe goes to the polls Monday in its first election since Mugabe was forced to resign last November after 37 years in power, with allegations mounting of voter fraud and predictions of a disputed result.

President Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s former ally in the ruling ZANU-PF party, faces opposition leader Nelson Chamisa of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in a landmark vote for the southern African nation.

Zimbabwe’s military generals shocked the world last year when they seized control and ushered Mnangagwa to power after Mugabe, 94, allegedly tried to position his wife Grace, 53, to be his successor. “It was a thorough coup d’etat, you don’t roll... the tanks without your army and units deployed,” he said, adding it was “utter nonsense” that he wanted Grace as his successor.

Mnangagwa, 75, who promises a fresh start for the country, is the front-runner with the advantage of covert military support, a loyal state media and a ruling party that controls government resources. But Chamisa, 40, who has performed strongly on the campaign trail, hopes to tap into a young population that could vote for change as ZANU-PF has ruled since the country’s independence from British colonial rule in 1980. Elections under Mugabe were marred by fraud and violence, and this year’s campaign has been dominated by accusations that the vote will be rigged.

The MDC has raised allegations of a flawed electoral roll, ballot paper malpractice, voter intimidation, bias in the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and free food handed out by the ruling party.