HARARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa is skipping the BRICS summit in South Africa which his spokesman had earlier said he would attend, and is instead staying home as Zimbabweans vote in general elections on Wednesday.

The 80-year-old is expected to vote at Sherwood Primary School in Kwekwe, and retreat to his home in Harare to wait for the election results.

His main rival Nelson Chamisa will cast his ballot at Kuwadzana 2 Primary School in what polls predict will be a tight election.

George Charamba, the spokesman in the presidency, said Tuesday: “Zimbabwe will be represented by Vice President (Constantino) Chiwenga and Prof Mthuli Ncube (finance minister) at the forthcoming BRICS summit. They will vote in the morning and leave for Cape Town later in the day.”

That was a U-turn from the position five days earlier when, crowing about Mnangagwa’s “absolute confidence” in winning when he made a trip to a SADC summit in Angola in the middle of the election campaign, Charamba wrote on Twitter: “More is coming; he will fly to Cape Town for the BRICS summit soon after casting his vote.”

Charamba did not explain the sudden change of plans.

Zimbabwe is one of the countries that have shown an interest in joining the trade bloc, and the Cape Town summit of the BRICS members—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa— is expected to discuss over 20 submitted applications. The summit is running from August 22 to 24.

Presidential elections results are not expected for at least three days, and Mnangagwa’s decision to skip the key summit could signal pre-election apprehension in his camp.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission says there are over 6.6 million voters, a million more than the 5.7 million eligible to vote during in the last elections in 2018. The new voters have brought a degree of uncertainty to this election, with Mnangagwa carrying a razor-thin winning margin of less than 35,000 votes from 2018.

Campaigning for the election ended on Monday. Chamisa spent the greater part of Tuesday meeting foreign election observers. There were no publicised official engagements for Mnangagwa, who met the observer missions on Monday.

Zanu PF has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980. Mnangagwa’s challengers accuse him of using intimidation, violence and partisan food distribution to cling to power, but a raging economic crisis could blow wind into the sails of the 45-year-old Chamisa, a pastor and lawyer.