The wife of Zimbabwe's
92-year-old President, Robert Mugabe, has said that he is so popular that if he
died, he could run as a corpse in next year's election and still win votes.
Grace Mugabe, 51, was addressing
a rally of the governing Zanu-PF party.
Mr Mugabe has governed Zimbabwe
since the end of white-majority rule in 1980 following a bitterly fought war.
His wife, who has often
professed her undying loyalty to her husband, has assumed an increasingly high
profile.
"One day when God decides
that Mugabe dies, we will have his corpse appear as a candidate on the ballot
paper," Mrs Mugabe told the rally in Buhera, south-east of the capital
Harare.
"You will see people voting
for Mugabe as a corpse. I am seriously telling you - just to show people how
people love their president."
President Mugabe
has been backed by his party to stand again in next year's election,
but recently cut back on his public engagements.
Grace Mugabe has warned
contemporaries of Mr Mugabe from the guerrilla war era that they are not in a
position to replace him because they likewise would be too old.
"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, gesticulating towards herself.
Last September, the president
was rumoured to have died after he reportedly cut short his attendance of an AU
summit to fly to Dubai for a health check.
Mr Mugabe later joked about the
rumours, saying he indeed died but was only resurrected.
-BBC
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