First Lady: A Dead Mugabe Would Still Win Elections in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwean First Lady Grace Mugabe declared Friday that her husband, President Robert Mugabe, could win the country’s presidential elections even if he was dead.

Mrs. Mugabe made the declaration while addressing a rally of the ruling Zanu-PF party supporters in Buhera, a region south-east of the capital Harare, reports Newsday.

“One day when God decides that Mugabe dies, we will have his corpse appear as a candidate on the ballot paper.

“You will see people voting for Mugabe as a corpse. I am seriously telling you — just to show people how people love their president,” Mrs. Mugabe declared in the local Shona language.

Neverending Rule

Mugabe, who will be 93 years old on Tuesday, is the world’s oldest president. Mugabe and his ZANU PF party have ruled Zimbabwe since independence from British colonial rule in 1980.

Initially revered by his country and around the continent for his role in pushing out the British colonial government, Mugabe has now overstayed his welcome and squandered most of the goodwill he enjoyed from his countrymen.

The Zimbabwean economy, which has suffered one of the worst cases of hyperinflation in modern history, is currently in shambles and the government is nearly insolvent.

After three decades in power, Mugabe is understandably feeble and in a general poor state of health. In recent years, there have been multiple rumors about his death and an intense jostling for power and position among leading members of his ruling Zanu-PF party for the chance to succeed him when he dies.

Loyal to a Fault?

Mrs. Mugabe, 51, is known for her unmatched loyalty toward her husband, and President Mugabe, in turn, is believed to have prepared an elaborate groundwork that would see her succeed him in office to the dismay of several more senior party members.

At Friday’s rally, Mrs. Mugabe took an apparent dig at some of these senior Zanu-PF party members, saying, “Anyone who was with Mugabe in 1980 has no right to tell him he is old. If you want Mugabe to go, then you leave together. You also have to leave. Then we take over because we were not there in 1980,” she said, pointing toward herself.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Mugabe’s Friday rant has prompted sharp reactions from many in the Zimbabwean opposition. The New Zimbabwe reports that Luke Tamborinyoka, a spokesman for opposition candidate in the 2008 presidential election Morgan Tsvangirai, told reporters that Mrs. Mugabe was simply exhibiting her insanity.

“She needs her head examined. Tsvangirai has defeated Mugabe in his best of health. What more, Mugabe, a cadaver assuming, he is not brain dead already given his very advanced age.

“It is an insult to the people of Zimbabwe to say they will vote for a corpse. This ‘marujata’ woman wants to take the nation for granted.”

PDP opposition party spokesman Jacob Mafume said, “Well, to us who are young, [we] feel that he [Mugabe] is an ancestor already,” before adding that, “Whether he is still properly among the living is a matter for debate by scientists and other experts.”