According to the election commission, Zimbabwe’s President Mnangagwa was confirmed in office with almost 53 percent of the votes – which the opposition immediately rejected. International observers had criticized the circumstances of the vote.
In Zimbabwe, incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa has reported a victory in the presidential election, which observers have judged to be insufficiently free and fair. The 80-year-old was able to secure almost 53 percent of the votes cast, the most promising opposition candidate Nelson Chamisa received 44 percent of the votes, as the election commission in the capital Harare announced.
According to preliminary results, the governing party ZANU-PF was also able to secure a majority in parliament. Mnangagwa is now expected to serve a second five-year term as president. He came to power in 2017 – as the successor to longtime head of state Robert Mugabe – after a military coup.
Opposition doesn’t accept result
Mnangagwa’s main challenger, Nelson Chamisa, who heads the opposition Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) party, received 44 percent of the vote, according to the Electoral Commission. However, a spokesman for the CCC stated on the news service X, formerly Twitter, that his party rejected “any result hastily compiled and published without proper verification”.
The head of the European Union observer mission said on Friday that this week’s elections in Zimbabwe took place in a “climate of fear”. Among other things, there are said to have been delays in voting, a ban on rallies and one-sided reporting in the state media. Observers from the African Union also complained, among other things, that supporters of Chamisa had been intimidated.
Due to delays in voting, Mnangagwa had extended the elections by one day. “Chaos” in some constituencies, reported by the AFP news agency, reinforced the allegations of manipulation. According to the electoral commission, turnout was 69 percent.