A retired Zimbabwean general and a close ally of former President Robert Mugabe has launched a political party to challenge President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the country’s presidential polls scheduled to hold later this year.

Ambrose Mutinhiri, a veteran of Zimbabwe’s independence war in the 1970s quit the ruling ZANU-PF party and relinquished his parliamentary seat last week Friday before meeting Mugabe to brief him about the development.

Mugabe, 94, who was forcefully ousted from office last November following a de facto military coup said he was bitter over his departure after 37 years in power and has declared his support for the New Patriotic Front (NPF).

A statement released on Monday by the NPF said the party was formed by ZANU-PF members and Zimbabweans “outraged by the unconstitutional and humiliating manner in Tsvangirai died from cancer last month which President Mugabe was ousted from leadership…by real criminals who have shamefully damaged Zimbabwe’s fledgling democracy.”

The new opposition party also disclosed that it would soon challenge the legality of Mnangagwa’s government at the Constitutional Court which had in November ruled that the military intervention that deposed Mugabe was lawful as it halted the bid by his allies to take over his duties.

Mutinhiri, an ethnic Zezuru like Mugabe, joins the ranks of other opposition political parties like the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), whose founding President, Morgan Mnangagwa had in January said the country would hold transparent elections by July and that he would respect the results if the opposition won – a pledge which many Zimbabweans see as key to unlocking the urgently needed financial assistance international financial institutions and a step towards mending relations with Western powers.