Jovial ED charms at polling station

**President Emmerson Mnangagwa (left) and First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa (below) cast their votes at Sherwood Primary School polling station in Chirumhanzu, Kwekwe, yesterday**

Auxillia Katongomara, Chronicle Reporter
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa, who is also Zanu-PF’s presidential candidate, cast his vote at Sherwood Primary School in Chirumanzu-Zibagwe Constituency near Kwekwe at around 10AM yesterday.

He was accompanied by the First Lady Cde Auxilia Mnangagwa, their children as well as two daughters-in-law.

As the first citizen voted, he joked with journalists that they were busy taking pictures and not voting.

Soon after voting, President Mnangagwa spoke to the presiding officer asking the total number of registered voters before interacting with the media outside the polling station.

A group of journalists from both the local and foreign media organisations had gathered at the school to capture President Mnangagwa casting his vote, for the first time as a Presidential candidate.

“I am happy that the process of campaigning was peaceful, voting today is peaceful. I have no doubt that the end process of the entire electoral process will remain peaceful,” he said.

Asked to comment on remarks by former President Mr Robert Mugabe that there was no democracy in the country since November last year, President Mnangagwa said: “I can assure you that the country is enjoying democratic space it has never experienced before. In every democratic space and country people have the freedom to express their views, negative or positive, so the former President is right to express his mind because there is the democratic space in existence in our beloved country.”

The President was referring to utterances on Sunday by Mr Mugabe that he was not going to vote for Zanu-PF and endorsed MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa and that there was no freedom in the country since his resignation in November.

Asked if he would engage Mr Mugabe, President Mnangagwa said they can engage anytime because he is a citizen of Zimbabwe.

“He is a citizen of this country, I engage him anytime not because there is an election or there is no election. He is a citizen of this country he can engage me any time if there is an issue for me or him to discuss,” he said.