The Zimbabwe’s President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, late on Saturday, has been declared winner of the nation’s presidential election with roughly 53% of the vote.
However, this outcome immediately drew skepticism and challenges from both the opposition, analysts, and international observer.
The election result would see Mnangagwa in power for a second term, while his political party, Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) continue to rule Zimbabwe for 43 years, having being in power since the country gained independence from British rule in 1980.
Mnangagwa, who took over from longtime leader Robert Mugabe after a 2017 army coup, was widely expected to secure re-election for a second term as analysts said the contest was heavily skewed in favour of the ZANU-PF ruling party, which has been in power for more than four decades.
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The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said Mnangagwa’s main challenger, Nelson Chamisa, who leads the opposition Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) party, secured 44% of the presidential vote.
ZANU-PF supporters started singing and cheering at the results centre after the elections commission said Mnangagwa had won.
A CCC spokesperson said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the party rejected “any result hastily assembled without proper verification”.
Mnangagwa, also known as “The Crocodile” for his stiff policies had narrowly defeated Chamisa at the last presidential election in 2018. The opposition alleges that election was rigged but the constitutional court upheld the result.
While the run-up to the election has been largely free from violence, The CCC says the police have banned several of its meetings since July, and nearly 100 gatherings since it was formed in January last year.
Earlier this month, 40 CCC members, including a parliamentary candidate, were reportedly arrested while campaigning in the capital Harare.
The recent killing of a CCC backer, allegedly by supporters of Mnangagwa’s Zanu-PF party, further raised concerns about rights.
However, ZANU-PF denies it has an unfair advantage or seeks to influence the outcome of elections through rigging.
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The head of the European Union’s observer mission on Friday said this week’s vote took place in a “climate of fear”.
Also, the 16-nation Southern African Development Community, SADC’s mission noted issues including voting delays, the banning of rallies and biased state media coverage.
Nicole Beardsworth, a politics lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, said she thought the late Saturday announcement was probably a response to the critique by SADC and other election observers.
“We all have a lot of questions about the speed with which ZEC is announcing presidential results,” she said.
Voting in this week’s presidential and parliamentary elections was meant to be wrapped up within one day on Wednesday, but it was extended into Thursday in some wards after the late distribution of ballot papers.
(Saheed Oyelakin and Reuters)