Chombo on succession : No vacancy until 2023

Zanu-PF secretary for Administration Ignatius Chombo has told warring factions racing to take over the presidency that they should be patient and wait until 2023 harmonised elections.

 According to Chombo, there is no vacancy until 2023.

"As Zanu-PF the person we elected as our leader at the last congress is our party candidate for 2018. President Mugabe is our candidate" he told a Zanu PF rally at Gwindingwi High School near Nyika Growth Point yesterday

"Whoever wants to stand as our party candidate can wait and challenge at the 2019 congress for the elections in 2023," Chombo is quoted saying by the state controlled Herald.

During the December party conference in Masvingo, the ruling Zanu-PF women's and youth leagues said Mugabe must be declared "life president".

"As youths we reaffirm our loyalty to president Mugabe as one centre of power and the party's sole candidate for the 2018 elections.

 We want to ensure that the president is declared life president and that the 21st February celebrations be turned a national holiday," the party's youth affairs national secretary Kudzai Chipanga  told delegates in December.

Mugabe has been in power since independence from British colonial rule in 1980.

He has avoided naming a successor or laying out plans to retire.

The absence of a clear successor has sparked infighting, including verbal exchanges on social media between factions angling for his position.