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African Press Review 30 July 2018

Robert Mugabe to vote against his party of 37 years in landmark Zim elections. And Kenyan man begins gruelling coast-to-coast trek to spread hope against epilepsy.

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We begin in Zimbabwe where the papers  focus on the July 30 general elections to pick a State President as well as 210 lawmakers and councilors.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is Mugabe's former ally and the ruling ZANU-PF party candidate, faces opposition leader Nelson Chamisa of the Movement for Democratic Change and 21 other candidates in the race for the country's highest office.

The State-owned Herald newspaper published a statement issued by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission reiterating that all was in place for the harmonized elections, with at least 5.6 million people registered to vote.

The paper reports that it will be the first time Zimbabwe is using a biometric voters roll in an election that will be polling station-based.

The Chronicle says more than 10,900 polling stations will be open from 7 am to 7 pm for the process with a record 23 people in the race for the country's Presidency.

Standard reports that Emmerson Mnangagwa's final campaign rally on Sunday was marred by a walkout by ZANU/PF supporters before he could finish delivering his campaign speech.

The paper says supporters, many of them bussed from outside Harare, started rushing to exit points while Mnangagwa was midway through his speech.

The Standard claims that police and national youth service graduates known as Green Bombers, refused to open the gates.

It claims that in videos that went viral on social media, the impatient ZANU/ PF supporters could be heard hurling insults at the youths, demanding to be allowed to leave the National Sports Stadium.

And in South Africa, Times live leads with pitiful remarks by ousted President Robert Mugabe that he would not vote for his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe spoke at a press conference he gave on the eve of this Monday's landmark vote.

The paper quotes Mugabe, who was trying to position his wife to become his successor before he was ousted by Zimbabwe's military generals in November, as saying that he will not vote for those who tormented him. I will make my choice among the other 22 candidates Mugabe hinted.

Sowetan says the 94 year-old who is one of the last Big Men of African politics, still looms large over Zimbabwean politics and may yet influence the first vote without his name on the ballot paper since the country gained independence from Britain in 1980, 37 years ago.

And in Kenya, the hearts of the people are with a brave man who has embarked on a 12-day protest walk to raise awareness about his sister's battle against epilepsy.

Standard reports that Frederick Beuchi whose sister was diagnosed with the disease at the age of two, set out for the 482 km trek, from his coastal hometown of Kwale to Mombasa.

Beuchi said he would walk 45 kilometers over nine hours each day to help drum up support and attention for a roadshow caravan by the National Epilepsy Coordination Committee to be held in Mombasa on August 15 and 16.

Standard says epilepsy was often mistaken for witchcraft in Kwale, until 2013 when Beuchi's 11-year-old sister got the medical attention that changed her life and spurred him to "try to spread hope".

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