Zimbabwe’s President Mnangagwa wins second term in disputed vote
- Mnangagwa, who took over from Robert Mugabe after a 2017 army coup, was widely expected to secure re-election. He won more than 52.6 per cent of the vote
- A spokesman for main challenger Nelson Chamisa’s party described the final tally as ‘false’, saying: ‘We cannot accept the results’
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa won a second term in office, election officials said Saturday, but the opposition rejected the result of a vote that international observers said fell short of democratic standards.
Mnangagwa, 80, won 52.6 per cent of the ballots against 44 per cent for the main challenger, Nelson Chamisa, 45, according to official results announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
“Mnangagwa Emmerson Dambudzo of ZANU-PF party is declared duly elected president of the Republic of Zimbabwe,” ZEC chairwoman Justice Chigumba told journalists.
Zimbabweans went to the ballot box to elect the president and legislature on Wednesday and Thursday in polling marred by delays that sparked opposition accusations of “rigging” and “voter suppression”.
The presidential results were welcomed by the celebratory cheers of a few ruling party supporters at the news conference venue.
But Promise Mkwananzi, a spokesman for Chamisa’s Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) said the party did not sign the final tally, which he described as “false”.
“We cannot accept the results,” he told Agence France-Presse, adding the party would soon announce its next move.
The vote was being watched across southern Africa as a test of support for Mnangagwa’s ZANU-PF, whose 43-year rule has been battered by a moribund economy and charges of authoritarianism.
