Zimbabwe inaugurates leader

HARARE, Zimbabwe— Zimbabwe on Sunday inaugurated a president for the secondtime in nine months asthe country once jubilant overthe fall of longtime leader Robert Mugabe was now largely subdued by renewed harassment of the a bitter ly disputed election.

The military-backed President Em mer son Mnangagwa, who again took the oath of office, faces the mammoth task of rebuilding a worsening economy and unitinga nation divided by a votethat many hoped would deliverchange.

The75-year-old Mr. Mnangagwa, who took power from his mentor Mr. Mugabe in November, said “my arms are outstretched” to main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa after the Constitutional Court on Friday rejected opposition claims of vote-rigging and upheld the president’ s narrow July 30 victory.

Somes upporters of the president, however, carried a make shift coffin bearing Mr. Chamisa’s name during Sunday’s ceremony.

“In just nine months we’ve birthed a new Zimbabwe,” said Mr. Mnangagwa, who has promised democratic and economic reforms after Mr. Mugabe’s repressive 37-year rule. He opened his speech by reading a letter from the 94-year-old Mr. Mugabe, whose firing of Mr. Mnangagwa sparked November’s dramatic events, offering congratulations and saying he could not attend because “I’m not well.”

Mr. Mnangagwa told the crowd that “our democracy has indeed come of age” and he invited all political parties to unite and “develop the motherland.”

The government badly needed a credible election to end its status as a global pariah, have international sanctions lifted — Mr. Mnangagwa himself remains under U.S. sanctions — and open the door to investment. State-run media this month estimated Zimbabwe’s debt arrears at $5.6 billion.

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