Zimbabwe court confirms Mnangagwa won presidential election

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On Friday, Zimbabwe's Constitutional Court rejected the opposition’s challenge to the country's landmark presidential election and declared Emmerson Mnangagwa as the duly-elected president.

"In the final analysis, the court finds the applicant has failed to place before it clear, direct, sufficient and credible evidence" of irregularities, Chief Justice Luke Malaba said in his ruling.

In a unanimous ruling of the nine judges of the country’s top court, Chief Justice Luke Malaba said opposition leader Nelson Chamisa had failed to prove allegations of fraud during the presidential vote.

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“Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa is duly declared the winner of the presidential elections held on the 30th of July 2018,” Malaba said in his ruling.

The election, in which Mnangagwa and Chamisa were the main contenders, was touted as a crucial step towards economic recovery and shedding Zimbabwe’s pariah reputation, but instead has left the nation deeply polarized.

Nkululeko Sibanda, spokeperson for Nelson Chamisa, the leader of opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, talks to the media outside the Constitutional Court in Harare, Zimbabwe, August 24, 2018. /Reuters Photo

An army crackdown in response to post-election violence by opposition supporters killed six people on August 1, recalling the heavyhanded security tactics that marked the 37-year rule of Robert Mugabe, who was removed in a coup last November.

Mnangagwa now faces the challenge of persuading the international community that the army crackdown and lapses in the election process will not derail his promise of reforms needed to fix the economy.

The president called for peace on his Twitter feed, after the ruling was delivered.

"Nelson Chamisa, my door is open and my arms are outstretched, we are one nation, and we must put our nation first. Let us all now put our differences behind us," he said.

President-elect Emmerson Mnangagwa's twitter screenshot. /CGTN Photo

Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa told Reuters that Mnangagwa would be inaugurated on Sunday.

At ZANU-PF’s offices, hundreds of supporters in the party’s green and yellow colors followed Malaba’s judgment on television, erupting into song and dance after their candidate was confirmed as president.

"He won the battle," a supporter told Reuters TV, adding that while Mnangagwa’s enemies were trying their best, “they fail”.

MDC Secretary General Douglas Mwonzora told reporters outside the court that “whatever we do as MDC we are going to act within the law ... We want Zimbabweans who want to demonstrate to be allowed to demonstrate.”

Outside the party’s office, one MDC member questioned the judges’ verdict. “It was not fair, they were favoring one side - ZANU-PF. The MDC had enough evidence but it was not considered,” he said.

Police blocked roads around the court, a 19th-century British colonial building, which is just opposite Mnangagwa’s offices in central Harare. Vehicles carrying water cannons reappeared on streets near the court house while riot police patrolled the city center in groups.

Source(s): Reuters