Conflicting narratives in Zimbabwe

Newly elected leader talks unity; defeated challenger cries fraud

HARARE, Zimbabwe — The two news conferences embodied Zimbabwe’s bitter political divisions: Riot police unsuccessfully tried to scuttle an appearance by the opposition leader who said the country’s election was a fraud, while the president spoke about a “flowering” of freedom and bipartisan unity.

Friday’s dueling narratives unfolded a day after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said President Emmerson Mnangagwa won the first election without Robert Mugabe on the ballot, ending a week that began with optimistic scenes of peaceful voting, turned ugly with a deadly crackdown by soldiers in Harare, and ended with the prospect of a legal challenge over the result.

The vast majority of Zimbabweans want to escape the debilitating legacy of Mugabe, whose early promise as leader after independence from white minority rule in 1980 gave way to repression, economic paralysis and a string of elections marred by violence and rigging allegations. The events this week suggest that Zimbabwe is conflicted, clinging to habits as it tries to forge a more open future.

Police with helmets, shields and clubs surged into a hotel garden where dozens of journalists were waiting for a news conference by opposition leader Nelson Chamisa. They ordered everyone to leave and scuffled with some who were reluctant to move and peppered the police commander with comments like: “What law has been broken? We’ve been threatened by your officers.”

Police eventually withdrew and a senior official from the ruling ZANU-PF party arrived to make amends, declaring that the news conference should proceed.

When Chamisa arrived, he promised to pursue “all legal and constitutional routes” to nullify Mnangagwa’s election win.

“We are not accepting this fiction,” said Chamisa, 40, a lawyer and pastor who heads the Movement for Democratic Change party.

Mnangagwa, 75, a former deputy president under Mugabe, received 50.8 percent of the vote, Chamisa 44.3 percent, according to election officials.

Chamisa, however, said the opposition’s own count showed that he won and said his party would release evidence of vote-rigging at an appropriate time.

In a contrasting scene, Mnangagwa made conciliatory remarks at his offices in the presidential State House complex.

Wearing a scarf with the national colors over his suit, the president said there had been a “flowering of freedom and democracy” since 94-year-old Mugabe’s resignation in November.

Mnangagwa said the election was free and fair and appealed to Chamisa for unity, while also saying the opposition leader was entitled to air his grievances in court.