Zimbabwe’s National Patriotic Front (NPF), which former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe and his wife have voiced support for, has called on President Emmerson Mnangagwa to resign as protests over petrol prices continue.

Several people have been killed during clashes between demonstrators and security forces.

“NPF wishes to register disquiet over reports of loss of life in Harare, Chitungwiza and other parts of the country in the ongoing demonstrations against the debilitating economic decay bedevilling our country,” the political party said on Tuesday in a press release.

“We hereby call on President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his government to resign en-mass and pave way for a broad-based platform for different social groupings in the country, including, but not limited to, political parties, civic organisations and the church to negotiate for modalities to institute a democratic transitional government tasked with returning the country to constitutionalism and prosperity.”

The release added that it noted the country’s continuing deteriorating economic conditions after what it described as the “unconstitutional takeover of government by the Zanu-PF Lacoste faction in November 2017, which culminated in the blatant rigging of the 30 July 2018 harmonised elections”.

The NPF went on to say that it believed in human rights, constitutionalism, rule of law and the sanctity of human life and condemned the loss of lives as protesters attempted to exercise their right to peaceful demonstrations as enshrined in Zimbabwe’s national constitution.