Incumbent Mnangagwa declared winner of tight election

Mnangagwa wins Zimbabwe election

Incumbent Mnangagwa declared winner of tight election

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has declared the incumbent president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, winner of the Monday presidential election.

It was a tight race between Mnangagwa and the opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa with about 6 point difference.

Mnangagwa, erstwhile deputy to Robert Mugabe became the president after the army forced Mugabe to resign late last year.

The ruling party perceived that Mugabe might have been plotting to handover power to his wife, Grace, and they beckoned on the military to help restore sanity.

With all 10 provinces declared, Mr Mnangagwa won 50.8% of votes, compared to 44.3% for opposition leader Nelson Chamisa.

Police removed opposition officials from the electoral commission stage when they rejected the results.

Supporters of the opposition party had pre-empted the result of the election, alleging rigging in favour of the ruling party, ZANU-PF.

Mnangagwa has accepted the result of the election and calling for peace.

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The opposition candidate, Nelson Chamisa, 40, had said he won the election, exciting his supporters. But when the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) released the result of parliamentary elections and gave victory to majority seat to the ruling party, ZANU-PF, it sparked outrage by the opposition supporters.

Opposition alliance in Zimbabwe, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is not accepting the result as they accuse the electoral body of rigging the polls in favour of the ruling party. ZEC has strongly denied this allegation.

There was a government crackdown on hundreds of protesters in Harare on Wednesday and three persons have been reported killed and some more wounded.

The UN and former colonial power the UK both expressed concern about the violence, in which three people were killed after troops opened fire.

The result of the presidential election has yet to be declared. The MDC opposition alliance insists its candidate, Nelson Chamisa, beat the incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged Zimbabwe’s politicians to exercise restraint, while UK foreign office minister Harriett Baldwin said she was “deeply concerned” by the violence.

The US embassy in Harare urged the army to “use restraint” on Twitter, saying the country had an “historic opportunity” for a brighter future.

Human rights group Amnesty International meanwhile called on the government to open a probe into the army’s actions.

Amnesty’s acting secretary general Colm O Cuanachain said in a press release that the “militarisation” of the election aftermath was “muzzling freedom of expression, association and assembly”.

“People must be guaranteed their right to protest,” he said.