Welcome, President Mnangagwa
HARARE: Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court confirmed President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s disputed July 30 election victory yesterday, dismissing an opposition challenge that held up his inauguration, which will be held tomorrow.
Before the vote, Mnangagwa had said a credible election could pull Zimbabwe out of diplomatic isolation under former president Robert Mugabe, ending international sanctions and prompting economic recovery. Instead, the vote left the nation polarised, with Nelson Chamisa, who leads the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), mounting a legal challenge and violence flaring on the streets of Harare, the capital.
In a unanimous ruling by the nine judges of the country’s top court, Chief Justice Luke Malaba said Chamisa had failed to prove allegations of fraud during the vote.
“Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa is duly declared the winner of the presidential elections held on 30th of July,” Malaba said in his ruling.
The election, in which Mnangagwa and Chamisa were the main contenders, was touted as a crucial step towards shedding Zimbabwe’s pariah reputation and securing international donor funding to revive an economy suffering chronic shortages of investment and cash, as well as high unemployment.
An army crackdown in response to post-election violence by opposition supporters left six people dead on August 1, recalling the heavy-handed security tactics that marked the 37-year rule of Mugabe, who was removed in a coup last November.
Mnangagwa now faces the challenge of persuading the international community that the army crackdown and lapses in the election process will not derail his promise of reforms to overcome corruption and mismanagement under Mugabe.
The president called for peace on his Twitter feed, after the ruling was delivered.
“Nelson Chamisa, my door is open and my arms are outstretched, we are one nation, and we must put our nation first. Let us all now put our differences behind us,” he said.
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said Mnangagwa would be inaugurated tomorrow.
At Zanu-PF’s offices, hundreds of supporters in the party’s green and yellow colours followed Malaba’s judgment on television, erupting into song and dance after their candidate was confirmed as president.
“He won the battle,” a supporter told Reuters TV, adding that while Mnangagwa’s enemies were trying their best, “they fail”.
MDC secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora told reporters outside the court that “whatever we do as MDC we are going to act within the law… We want Zimbabweans who want to demonstrate to be allowed to demonstrate.” – Reuters/African News Agency (ANA)