Ghost of Mugabe looms over Zimbabwe election read it all on Tafia world.

 

For the first time in a generation, there will be a glaring omission on the ballot form when Zimbabweans go to the polls on Monday.

Robert Mugabe may have disappeared from the public view, but his ghost still lingers over a vote which threatens to be one of the closest in the country's history.

Mugabe, now 94, ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years before resigning last November amid the pressure of a military takeover and the humiliation of impeachment.

Former President Robert Mugabe kisses his wife and former first lady Grace Mugabe during the country's 37th Independence Day celebrations in 2017.

Rarely seen in public since, he spends his time between Singapore, where he is receiving medical treatment, and his plush 25-room Blue House residence in the nation's capital of Harare.

Sightings of Mugabe's wife, Grace, nicknamed "Gucci Grace" for her love of a lavish lifestyle, have become similarly scarce.

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That outcome may have been different had Mugabe had his way. Instead, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the man who Mugabe fired as his deputy only weeks before his resignation while attempting to have his wife appointed as his successor, now leads the country and the Zanu-PF party.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa addresses a meeting attended by farmers and businessmen from the Zimbabwean White community ahead of this month's elections.

"Mugabe himself has not been visible, he's not been saying much about this election," Dewa Mavhinga, Southern Africa Director of Human Rights Watch told CNN.

"There are people who remain loyal to him within Zanu-PF, so that would be a factor -- and that factor might actually reduce the levels of support that the presidential candidate for Zanu-PF enjoys."

That candidate is the current president, Mnangagwa, who has attempted to rebrand the ruling Zanu-PF party. He has already survived one attempt on his life ahead of this election when a grenade was thrown at the stage during a campaign rally last month.

The 75-year-old is still widely considered as Mugabe's man given that he worked so closely with him for more than 40 years, first as his special assistant during the 1977 liberation war, and later as security minister and justice minister.

Mnangagwa has pledged to heal divisions and rebuild the country. "Some have eyes but they do not see, others have ears but cannot hear that we are in a new Zimbabwe," he told a Zanu-PF rally last week, Reuters reported. "Together we will rebuild our nation, a new prosperous Zimbabwe for our people."