Zimbabwe’s Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who was injured by a bomb blast in the city of Bulawayo, on Sunday vowed the July 30 election will go ahead despite the attack.
“Let me be very clear, nothing will stop the election in Zimbabwe, nothing at all,” Chiwenga told supporters in Chitungwiza town near Harare, a day after he sustained slight bruises on his face in the attack.
“That act of terrorism in Bulawayo is nothing.”
Chiwenga spoke a day after a bomb went off at the ruling party campaign rally in which President Emmerson Mnangagwa narrowly escaped unharmed.
However, 49 other people were injured, including the country’s two vice presidents.
Plumes of smoke engulfed the presidential entourage as he descended down stairs from the podium at the White City stadium in the second largest city of Bulawayo, footage from the blast showed.
Zimbabwe is scheduled to hold presidential, parliamentary and local government elections on July 30.
“We want an election which is free and fair, credible,” Chiwenga told a rally of around 400 supporters who raised clenched fists, a ZANU-PF symbol, chanting “forward with the president”.
The president said he was the target of Saturday’s attack that also injured his second Vice-President Kembo Mohadi, and which the state media is describing as an assassination attempt.
Chiwenga said the attackers “will be hunted down” and “brought before the law”.
He promised fellow politicians that they will be provided with security during their election rallies and urged them “we must all continue to campaign peacefully.”
