Zimbabwean President Mnangagwa wins second term in controversial vote

Issued on: 08/27/2023 – 07:03

2 minutes

Mnangagwa, 80, won 52.6 percent of the vote against 44 percent for his main challenger, Nelson Chamisa, 45, according to official results announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).

“Mnangagwa Emmerson Dambudzo of the ZANU-PF party is declared the duly elected president of the Republic of Zimbabwe,” ZEC chairwoman Judge Chigumba told reporters.

Zimbabweans went to the polls to choose the president and the legislature on Wednesday and Thursday in an election marred by delays that prompted opposition accusations of voter rigging and suppression.

The presidential results were greeted with celebratory applause from some ruling party supporters at the press conference venue.

But Promise Mkwananzi, a spokesman for Chamisa’s Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC), said the party did not sign the final tally, calling it “false.”

“We cannot accept the results,” he told AFP, adding that the party will soon announce its next step.

The vote was seen across southern Africa as a show of support for Mnangagwa’s ZANU-PF, whose 43-year government has been battered by a moribund economy and accusations of authoritarianism.

Foreign election observers said on Friday that the elections had not been up to regional and international standards.

‘Rig’

Observation missions from the European Union, the Commonwealth and the 16-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) listed a number of concerns, including a ban on opposition rallies, problems with the census of voters, biased state media coverage, and voter intimidation.

“The elections were riddled with irregularities and wronged the people of Zimbabwe,” said political analyst Rejoice Ngwenya.

“The CCC has good reason to go to court and challenge the result.”

ZEC’s Chigumba said Mnangagwa had garnered more than 2.3 million votes and Chamisa more than 1.9 million.

By getting more than half of the votes cast, the president avoided a second round. Voter turnout was 69 percent.

Nicknamed “The Crocodile” for his ruthlessness, Mnangagwa first rose to power after a coup that ousted late ruler Robert Mugabe in 2017.

A year later, he narrowly beat Chamisa for the first time in a poll that the opposition leader condemned as fraudulent and was followed by a deadly crackdown.

Voting this week was forced into an unprecedented second day due to delays in printing ballot papers in some key districts, including opposition stronghold Harare.

Chamisa condemned the delays as “a clear case of voter suppression, a classic case of Stone Age rigging.”

As a white-ruled British colony called Rhodesia, the country seceded from London in 1965, gained independence in 1980 after a long guerrilla war, and was renamed Zimbabwe.

But under Mugabe, its first leader, the fledgling democracy turned into hawkish rule and economic decline, with hyperinflation wiping out savings and deterring investment.

The opposition hoped to ride a wave of discontent over corruption, high inflation, unemployment and entrenched poverty.

But ZANU-PF was also declared the winner in the parliamentary race, winning 136 of the 210 seats up for grabs under an outright majority system, against 73 for the CCC. One seat was not allocated due to the death of a candidate.

Another 60 are reserved for women appointed through a system of proportional representation by party lists.

(AFP)