Mnangagwa elected president of Zimbabwe
HARARE: Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former ally of Robert Mugabe, narrowly won the country’s landmark election, results showed yesterday, in an outcome set to fuel fraud allegations as security forces patrolled the streets to prevent protests.
Mnangagwa won 50.8 per cent of the vote, ahead of Nelson Chamisa of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party on 44.3 per cent, 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 per cent 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 has braced for public reaction to the election results — the first since the ousting of Mugabe — after a deadly crackdown on protesters.
Six people were killed on Wednesday when troops fired live rounds against MDC protesters alleging the vote had been rigged.
Soldiers and police cleared central Harare ahead of the results, shouting at pedestrians and traders to leave the area, as the opposition MDC repeatedly alleged that Zanu-PF was stealing the election.
Moments before the official announcement, MDC spokesman Morgan Komichi denounced the vote count as “fake” as he took to the stage at the ZEC results centre before being removed by police.
After Mnangagwa was declared the winner, he said his party rejected the outcome.
“We will take this to the courts,” he said.