Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been elected to a second term with 52.6 percent of the vote, the Electoral Commission says.
However, the opposition claimed the vote was heavily rigged and international observers said the vote fell short of democratic standards.
Mr Mnangagwa is only the third president of Zimbabwe. A 2017 coup against veteran ruler Robert Mugabe put him in charge.
Zimbabweans still face inflation, poverty and a climate of fear.
When he first became president, Mr Mnangagwa – known as “the crocodile” for his ruthlessness – promised a new start for his countrymen.
But Zimbabwe had the highest rate of inflation in the world last month – prices in July rose 101.3 percent from a year earlier. Unemployment also remains high, with only 25 percent of Zimbabweans holding formal jobs.
Mr. Mnangagwa’s pledge to guarantee human rights also appears hollow, with little having changed since Mr. Mugabe’s departure.
Critics say the 80-year-old silenced dissent and dominated the opposition during the vote, which he was widely expected to win.
Mr Mnangagwa’s main challenger, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) candidate Nelson Chamisa, won 44 percent of the vote, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said.
According to ZEC, Mr Mnangagwa polled more than 2.3 million votes, while Mr Chamisa polled 1.9 million. Voter turnout in the country of about 16 million was 69%, the election body said.
The opposition claims that the vote was rigged, but the Constitutional Court has upheld the result.
A CCC spokesperson posted on X – formerly known as Twitter – that the party rejected “any conclusions that have been hastily gathered without proper verification”.
Party spokesman Promise Mkwanzai told JEE News that the CCC had not signed off on the “false” final tally and “cannot accept the results”.
He said that the party will announce its next move soon.
Observer missions from the European Union, the Commonwealth and the 16-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) said they had a number of concerns about the vote, including a ban on opposition rallies, problems with the electoral register, biased state media. Includes coverage and voter intimidation.
“The elections were riddled with irregularities and are upsetting the people of Zimbabwe,” political analyst Rajois Ngonya told JEE News.
The election campaign was largely free of violence, but CCC members were convicted on what they described as trumped-up charges to weaken the party. The party says police have banned several of its meetings since July and about 100 gatherings since its formation in January last year.
Earlier this month, 40 CCC members, including a parliamentary candidate, were arrested while campaigning in the capital, Harare.
The recent killing of a CCC supporter, allegedly by supporters of Mr Mnangagwa’s Zanu-PF party, raised further concerns about rights.
Critics are arrested and taken to court for insulting the president – an offense punishable by up to a year in jail or a fine or both. A man in Harare was charged in April after allegedly overhearing a police officer saying that Mr Mnangagwa would lose the next election.
“Crocodile”, as he is known, has a fearsome reputation that was strengthened during the post-independence civil war in the 1980s between Mr Mugabe’s Zanu party and Joshua Nkomo’s Zapu party.
As Minister of National Security, Mr. Mnangagwa was in charge of the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), which worked closely with the military to suppress Zapu.
Thousands of civilians – mainly ethnic Ndebeles, seen as Zapu supporters – were killed in a campaign known as Gukurahundi, before the two parties merged to form Zanu-PF. .
Mr Mnangagwa has denied any role in the massacre. As President, he has tried to promote reconciliation. Some have found his comments glaring given the deep wounds in Metabililand, but the move to exhume the bodies and allow reburials has been agreed.
Voting in the presidential and parliamentary elections was scheduled for Wednesday but was extended to Thursday due to delayed distribution of ballot papers in some areas.
Mr Mnangagwa’s election means that Zanu-PF has ruled Zimbabwe for 43 years, since the country gained independence from British rule in 1980.
The party was also declared the winner in the parliamentary race, winning 136 seats out of 210, with the CCC winning 73 seats. Another 60 seats are reserved for women and are appointed through proportional representation.
