Ending months of uncertainty, Zimbabwe on Wednesday set the date for presidential elections, renewing the prospect of a battle between iron-fisted incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa and opposition hopeful Nelson Chamisa.
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Elections for the president, National Assembly and local government will take place on August 23, the government’s official record, the gazette, said.

Eighty-year-old Mnangagwa, who replaced strongman ruler Robert Mugabe in 2017 after a military-led coup, heads the ruling ZANU-PF party, which has been in power since independence in 1980.

His main challenger is Nelson Chamisa, a 45-year-old lawyer and pastor, who leads the recently formed Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party and narrowly lost to Mnangagwa in 2018.

Analysts are bracing for a tense ballot in a country where discontent at entrenched poverty, power cuts and other shortages runs deep.

Rights groups and opposition parties have complained of a clampdown ahead of the vote.

After the election date was revealed, the CCC urged supporters to register to vote.
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“This is a crucial step in playing your part in shaping the future of our country,” the party said on Twitter.

In 2018 Mnangagwa, dubbed “the Crocodile” for his political cunning, won a violence-stained election with 50.8 percent of the vote.

The result was denounced as fraud by Chamisa, who at the time led the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC-Alliance).

The ruling party won 145 out of 210 seats contested in the lower house, the National Assembly, which are directly elected on a first-past-the-post basis.

The MDC-Alliance got 63 seats, and two seats were taken by independents.

Another 60 seats are reserved for women appointed through a party-list system of proportional representation.

The senate comprises 80 members with 60 appointed through proportional representation, 18 traditional chiefs who are generally loyal to ZANU-PF, and two representatives of people with disabilities.
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