Zimbabwe’s president RE-ELECTED for second term, opposition claims victory too

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been elected to a second term with 52.6% of the vote, the electoral commission says.

But the opposition also claimed to have won, saying there was widespread vote-rigging, and observers said the vote fell short of democratic standards.

Mr Mnangagwa is only Zimbabwe’s third president. A 2017 coup against veteran ruler Robert Mugabe put him in charge.

Zimbabweans still face high 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 country’s people.

But Zimbabwe had one of the highest inflation rates in the world last month – prices in July had rocketed by 101.3% since the previous year. Unemployment also remains rife, with only 25% of Zimbabweans holding formal jobs.

Mr Mnangagwa’s vow to guarantee human rights also appears hollow, with little changing in this regard since Mr Mugabe’s departure.

Critics say the 80-year-old silenced dissent and clamped down on the opposition in the run-up to the vote, which he had been widely-expected to win.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said Mr Mnangagwa’s main challenger, Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) candidate Nelson Chamisa, secured 44% of the vote.

Mr Mnangagwa received more than 2.3m votes, while Mr Chamisa took 1.9m, according to the ZEC. Voter turnout in the country of almost 16m was 69%, the electoral body said.

But Mr Chamisa said that the opposition had the “real results” and that there had been many irregularities.

“We have won this election. We are the leaders. We are even surprised why Mnangagwa has been declared a leader,” he told journalists in Harare.