Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has for the second year running been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize alongside more than 200 other world human rights defenders.
He was also nominated in 2009, when US President Barack Obama received the prestigious award.
Human rights lawyer Gabriel Shumba, director of the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum in South Africa, said the latest nomination of Mr. Tsvangirai sets an example for good governance and democracy in Africa.
One bookmaking Website was giving eight-to-one odds in favor of Tsvangirai on Friday, alongside former UN Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson and Russian activist Svetlana Gannushkina. But the front runner is Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, currently serving an 11-year jail sentence for "inciting subversion of state power."
Liu organized Charter 08 demanding political reform and democracy in China. Lui was nominated by the Dalai Lama, and South African Bishop Desmond Tutu, among others, and has major support from China rights activists.
The winner will be announced on October 8 in Oslo, Norway.
Leading human rights groups have yet to voice support for Mr. Tsvangirai’s nomination. But Shumba told VOA Studio 7 reporter Tatenda Gumbo that many groups, including those in Africa, would readily back him.
