Zimbabwe’s president wins landmark election

HARARE— Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former ally of Robert Mugabe, narrowly won the country’s landmark election, results showed early Friday, in an outcome set to fuel fraud allegations as security forces patrolled the streets to prevent protests.

Mnangagwa won 50.8 percent of the vote, ahead of Nelson Chamisa of the opposition MDC party on 44.3 percent, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said.

“Mnangagwa, Emmerson Dambudzo, of ZANU-PF party is therefore duly declared elected president of the Republic of Zimbabwe,” announced ZEC chair Priscilla Chigumba.

Mnangagwa won by the smallest of margins, after needing more than 50 percent of the vote to secure victory without a second-round run-off.

He quickly took to Twitter to say he was “humbled” to have won the election, hailing it as a “new beginning” for the country.

“Though we may have been divided at the polls, we are united in our dreams. This is a new beginning,” he said.

Since independence from Britain in 1980, Zimbabwe has known only two presidents – Mugabe, who ruled with an iron fist for 37 years, and his erstwhile right-hand man Mnangagwa, who was appointed after Mugabe was forced out by the military in November last year.

Zimbabwe was braced for public reaction to the election results – the first since the ousting of Mugabe – after a deadly crackdown on protesters.

FRANCE PRESSE AGENCE This picture shows a placard reading "My life is not your porn" during a monthly protest by South Korean women against secretly-filmed spycam pornography in Seoul.

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE Supporters of the president elect Emmerson Mnangagwa celebrate after the announcement of his re-election in Harare8.