HARARE, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa says Zimbabwe will go for elections in the next four to five months, state media reported Thursday.

Speaking in Maputo, Mozambique, on the fourth leg of his regional tour of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Wednesday, Mnangagwa said free and fair elections were critical in repositioning Zimbabwe as a democratic state within the international system, the Herald newspaper reported.

This will be the first time since independence that the ruling Zanu-PF party will field a different presidential candidate from former President Robert Mugabe who was forced to step down in November 2017 following military intervention.

"I assure the regional leadership that the forthcoming harmonized polls will embrace the tenets of democracy fair play and standards set by us in SADC," he was cited as saying.

The President met Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on the fourth leg of a tour which has so far taken him to South Africa, Angola and Namibia.