Zimbabwe’s elections commission said late on Saturday that incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa had won this week’s presidential election with roughly 53% of the vote, but the opposition and analysts immediately questioned the result.
Mnangagwa, who took over from longtime leader Robert Mugabe after a 2017 army coup, was widely expected to secure re-election for a second term as analysts said the contest was heavily skewed in favour of the ZANU-PF ruling party, which has been in power for more than four decades.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said Mnangagwa’s main challenger, Nelson Chamisa, who leads the opposition Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) party, secured 44% of the presidential vote.
ZANU-PF supporters started singing and cheering at the results centre after the elections commission said Mnangagwa had won.
A CCC spokesperson said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the party rejected “any result hastily assembled without proper verification”.
Mnangagwa also narrowly defeated Chamisa at the last presidential election in 2018. The opposition alleges that election was rigged but the constitutional court upheld the result.
While the run-up to the election has been largely free from violence, the police routinely ban opposition rallies and arrest opposition supporters using Zimbabwe’s tough public order laws.
ZANU-PF denies it has an unfair advantage or seeks to influence the outcome of elections through rigging.
The head of the European Union’s observer mission on Friday said this week’s vote took place in a “climate of fear”. Southern African regional bloc SADC’s mission noted issues including voting delays, the banning of rallies and biased state media coverage.
Nicole Beardsworth, a politics lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, said she thought the late Saturday announcement was probably a response to the critique by SADC and other election observers.
“We all have a lot of questions about the speed with which ZEC is announcing presidential results,” she said.
Voting in this week’s presidential and parliamentary elections was meant to be wrapped up within one day on Wednesday, but it was extended into Thursday in some wards after the late distribution of ballot papers.
Source:Reuters
Rigged election, no ways Mnangagwa can get double the votes that Chamisa got, all observers have cited and reported electoral irregularities.
These people who cling onto power at the sake of the country, and allow their nations to be destroyed by their own mismanagement, why???
Are we Africans just a cursed race???
God have mercy on us…this is such a terrible set back for beautiful Zimbabwe…
The opposition are too blame. Why were they just counting on fair votes? Opposition was supposed to win through rigging the elections.
Let Zimbabweans sort out their elections challenges. They can do it
We Africans cannot sort out our problems and never been able to
look at our politics, its all about personal importance and power, without much thought for the betterment of Zambia as a whole. South Africa a prime example from power house of Africa to nearly a failed state,
same with our neighbors
CRY OUR BELOVED AFRICA
One reason is because we want to copy what we don’t understand.
Nigeria and other ECOWAS members want to invade Niger but failed to help Libya when the West invaded it for no reason other than the form of economic independence Muamar Gaddafi had successfully implemented in that country. The whole Africa and Arab world should have gone all out to defend Libya.
“While the run-up to the election has been largely free from violence, the police routinely ban opposition rallies and arrest opposition supporters using Zimbabwe’s tough public order laws”
Is this different from Zambia? Why should we tell our friends to do things that we don’t do in our country… like freedom to hold meetings? Kaili nabo kuli security concerns.
Why should we tell our friends to do things that we don’t do in our country?
Deja Fooool,its fooolish people like you and Membe who have led to suffering of Africans.Do you,in your small mind think that Mnangagwa can take Zimbabwe,Socialize or Communize it and then pit it against the might of the collective west?This election result will be another five years of agony for Zimbabweans.I have constantly tried to teach Membe and his zombies that the struggle is nolonger between Marxist/Leninism and Capitalizm.It is rather a fight for social justice and equity in a Liberalized world order.Mnangagwa or even Membe do not have the intelligence or stamina to break the stranglehold of western sanctions,Presidens like HH and Ruto understand this reality.The rallying call is nolonger”Aluta Continua”. What revolution?It is “Africa Unite”,
Muamar Gaddafi was worse than Idi Amin
Worse than Idi Amin in which way? Kindly educate me.
Indeed how? Idi Amin the first African leader to start a war with another country. He did nothing for Uganda while Gaddafi’s achievements for Libyans are numerous
Even mugabe lost confidence in his own party. This slow criminal is a cheating f00l
Do not be naive Mugabe seemingly lost confidence because his plan to hand over power to his wife was thwarted making him bitter . Otherwise had he managed to give power to his wife he would have died the same resolute as he did.
You can’t compare mugabe with all his shortcomings, to this slow corrupt thug mnangagwa. I would rather the whites rule zim than the crop of leaders in zanupf
Criminal and compromised Nevers Mumba was not supposed to be in Zimbabwe….HH IS A DANGER TO ZAMBIA AND SADC…This is Zimbabwe’s issue….Ask yourself how come there’re never any Elections observers in the USA or the UK or any other European country???
@ TIKKI
And the reason we don’t develop is because of Politics….just think of it now PF wants UPND to fail so that they can be voted out….and when UPND was in opposition they wanted PF to fail and this is why we are behind in terms of development…look at Saudi Arabia…Dubai…China etc where there’s no the so called “DEMOCRACY” imposed on us by the West….I visited Zimbabwe in 1995 and it was heaven on earth…South Africa before “DEMOCRACY” was like heaven on earth…1992 i visited South Africa it was so beautiful with a lot of greens but now even the greens have disappeared….WE HAVE A BIG PROBLEM AS AFRICANS AND WE WANT THE WEST TO CONTINUE DOMINATING US AND BEING OUR MASTERS….Chamisa..Mmusi Maimame and Nevers Mumba are puppets of the West
America has a sickly demented crooked corrupt President Joe Biden and he still wants to rule even wearing diapers…elections are rigged in the USA…Politics in the USA is controlled by big cooperations…and they’re trying hard to silence Trump because he is anti big cooperations…anti globalization and anti gay….gays own most of big cooperations
I have been voting in the USA since 2004 and i have never seen or heard of any election observer…NEVER….because elections should be an internal(Sovereignty)matter and stop bringing in people to cause confusion and take sides…….and this is the what the west want so that Zimbabweans should start killing each….
Congratulations Dr. Mnangagwa for wining he Presidential elections. We pray for Zimbabwe regain its past glory of producing surplus food in this region. This time around, Zimbabweans must learn to develop agricultural systems rather than flock to South Africa. Give South Africa a breathing space to take care of its own peoples. Besides, even the UK, the USA and some European nations are inwardly and painfully overwhelmed by some African immigrant economic mercenaries.
Zimbabwe and Malawi seem to think South Africa should take care of their weak economies. Build Harare! Build Lilongwe! Dont export unwanted labour to Pretoria!
Those who wanted to lose balenya balepila.
Deja Fooool,its people like you and Membe who have led to suffering of Africans.Do you,in your small mind think that Mnangagwa can take Zimbabwe,Socialize or Communize it and then pit it against the might of the collective west?This election result will be another five years of agony for Zimbabweans.I have constantly tried to teach Membe and his zombies that the struggle is nolonger between Marxist/Leninism and Capitalizm.It is rather a fight for social justice and equity within a Liberalized world order.Mnangagwa or even Membe do not have the intelligence or stamina to break the stranglehold of western sanctions,Presidens like HH and Ruto and even Kagame understand this reality.The rallying call is nolonger”Aluta Continua”. What revolution?It is “Africa Unite”,
Go lick your dad’s pipe. Nyele is killing him.
As expected. Don’t even know why they bother to have elections when everybody knows a dictator will never give up power and therefore will never allow free and fair elections.
Well done Zimbabwe, the people have spoken. Let the man who cares for your sovereign take care of business. The imperialists failed to apply the same formula they used in Zambia. We know that the British are aching to go back and loot that country to it’s bare bones but you managed to kick them out. Makorokoto! If people wanted change they would have voted for that puppet.
How will the Supreme leader Ayatollah Hakainde Hichilema work with His excellence Edson Munangangwa the duly elected President of the great Zimbabwe
2H has issues with anything associated with president Lungu including all his friends. This will teach him a lesson for picking sides. He has aligned Zambia with the aggressors and naturally we are slowly drifting towards the traitors corner when it comes to African affairs.
So far Mozambique and Angola have condemned Nevas Mumba for operating outside the mandate. To make matters worse, former president of Mozambique Chissano mentioned this to Mnangagwa. Things can’t be worse.
Is SADC only composed of Zambia? Because so far Mozambique and Angola have said Nevas Mumba went far beyond his mandate. So who’s this SADC that is protecting the former man of God?
#Eediotic Muzambian… you are still living in the stone age… there’s no communism, no marxism, no capitalism. There are only power blocks fighting for global dominance. China has got more billionaires than the USA so how can they be communist? USA tells to withdraw subsidies but meanwhile they are subsidising their people in various ways. Open your eyes you FULL.
HH wanted to a ka copy and paste for Zimbabwe elections but failed lamentably. the Zimbabweans are smatter that Zambia and in the past two years they have learnt how Zambia has been run down economically. They have learnt how the imperialists have camped in our country to loot the resources and negotiating for better mineral deals.
Congratulations to Comrade Emerson Mnangagwa, the President elect, and to the people of Zimbabwe for voting against imperialism.
Congrats one Emmerson Munagagwa. Thanks to the wonderful people of Zimbabwe. Hats off to to the electoral commission their. Mugabe must be smiling in his grave – that is if there is such a thing.
Abashi Nevers mumba for bringing SADC in a state of disrepute. May all evil acts leave SADC alone.
Africanism 1 Imperialists 0.
The imperialists are so disjointed that they have outsourced their leadership to India in their own country. Congrats to Zimbabwe, watch how Zambia will take over as a failed state soon.