- Title: ZIMBABWE-ELECTION MUGABE VOTING Mugabe votes in presidential election
- Date: 31st July 2013
- Summary: RESENDING WITH FULL SCRIPT Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe votes in a fiercely contested poll pitting him against his long time political foe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Mugabe is seeking to extend his rule after leading the country for 33 years. SHOWS: HARARE, ZIMBABWE (JULY 31, 2013) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. PRESIDENT ROBERT MUGABE WALKING INTO THE ROOM 2. MEDIA AND OBSERVERS 3. ELECTORAL OFFICIALS CHECKING MUGABE'S PAPERS 4. OBSERVERS LOOKING ON 5. MUGABE CASTING HIS VOTE 6. MEDIA 7. MUGABE'S WIFE GRACE CASTING HER VOTE 8. MUGABE'S SON CASTING HIS VOTE
- Embargoed: 15th August 2013 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Zimbabwe
- City:
- Country: Zimbabwe
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA9K2XZI9ZUWMWY055TL5I5P3E4
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- Story Text: Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe cast his vote on Wednesday (July 31) in the country's presidential election pitting him against Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who has vowed to push Africa's oldest leader into retirement after 33 years in power.
Mugabe was accompanied by his wife Grace and son to a polling station in Highveld close to State House in Zimbabwean capital, Harare.
With no reliable opinion polls, it is hard to say whether the 61-year-old Tsvangirai will succeed in his third attempt to unseat the 89-year-old Mugabe, who has run the southern African nation since independence from Britain in 1980.
Both sides are forecasting landslide wins but, in a country with a history of election violence, the bigger question is whether the loser will accept the result of a poll dogged by logistical problems and allegations of vote-rigging.
Asked on the eve of the vote if he and his ZANU-PF party would accept defeat, Mugabe was unequivocal: "If you go into a process and join a competition where there are only two outcomes, win or lose, you can't be both. You either win or lose. If you lose, you must surrender."
A spokesman for Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the party was prepared only to accept the results if the poll was "free and fair."
Western observers have been barred from the elections, leaving the task of independent oversight to 500 regional and 7,000 domestic monitors.
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