Ruling party’s Mnangagwa wins Zimbabwe election
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa won election on Friday with just over 50 per cent of the ballots as the ruling party maintained control of the government in the first vote since the fall of longtime leader Robert Mugabe.
Mnangagwa received 50.8 per cent of the vote while main opposition challenger Nelson Chamisa received 44.3 per cent. The opposition is almost certain to challenge the results in the courts or in the streets.
While election day was peaceful in a break from the past, deadly violence on Wednesday against people protesting alleged vote-rigging reminded many Zimbabweans of the decades of military-backed repression under Mugabe.
Western election observers who were banned in previous votes have expressed concern at the military’s “excessive” force in the capital, Harare. Their assessments of the election are crucial to the lifting of international sanctions on a country whose economy collapsed years ago.
Shortly before the election commission’s announcement, Morgen Komichi, the chief agent for Chamisa’s opposition alliance, took the stage and said his party “totally rejects” the results and said he had not signed the election results. Police escorted him from the room.
Later, Komichi said the elections were “fraudulent” and “everything has been done illegally.” He said he had refused to certify Mnangagwa’s win.
Commission chair Priscilla Chigumba urged the country to “move on” with the hopeful spirit of election day and beyond the “blemishes” of Wednesday’s chaos.
With the military still deployed in Harare, the capital’s streets were quiet following the announcement of Mnangagwa’s victory.
By the centre where the election results were announced, Charity Manyeruke, who teaches political science at the University of Zimbabwe, said she was delighted.
“There is continuity, stability,” Manyeruke said. “Zimbabwe is poised for nation-building.”
The signs that Mnangagwa’s election will be disputed appears to deepen a political crisis that was worsened by Wednesday’s violence in Harare with the opposition supporters alleging voterigging.
The death toll rose to six, with 14 injured, police said, and 18 people were arrested at the offices of the main opposition party amid tensions over a vote that was supposed to restore trust in Zimbabwe after decades of Mugabe’s rule.
While Mnangagwa and the ruling party accused the opposition of inciting the violence, the opposition, humanrights activists and international election observers condemned the “excessive” force used and appealed to all sides to exercise restraint.
Police raided the headquarters of Chamisa’s Movement for Democratic Change party while a lawyers’ group said Chamisa was being investigated for allegedly inciting violence.
Mnangagwa called for an “independent investigation” into Wednesday’s violence, saying those responsible “should be identified and brought to justice.”
Mnangagwa was a longtime Mugabe confidante before his firing in November led his allies in the military to step in and push Mugabe to resign after 37 years in power. Thousands of jubilant Zimbabweans celebrated in the streets of Harare, greeting the military with selfies and cheers.
Since taking office, the 75-year-old Mnangagwa has tried to recast himself as a voice of reform, declaring that Zimbabwe was “open for business.”