Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa was reelected for a second and final five-year term late Saturday in results announced much earlier than expected following another troubled vote in the southern African country with a history of violent and disputed elections.
An opposition party spokesperson said within minutes of Mnangagwa being declared the winner that they would reject the results as “hastily assembled without proper verification.”
Mnangagwa’s victory meant the ZANU-PF party retained the governmental leadership it has held for all 43 years of Zimbabwe’s history since the nation was re-named following independence from white minority rule in 1980.
Zimbabwe has had just two leaders in that time, long-ruling autocrat Robert Mugabe and Mnangagwa.
The 80-year-old Mnangagwa, who has the nickname “the crocodile” from his days as a guerrilla fighter, won 52.6% of the votes in the midweek election, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said in a late-night announcement in the capital, Harare. The 45-year-old main opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa, got 44%, the commission said.
The results were released at about 11.30 p.m., roughly 48 hours after polls closed.
They likely will be closely scrutinized after international election observers raised questions over the environment in the buildup to the vote and pointed to an atmosphere of intimidation against Chamisa’s supporters.
The observers said they had specific concerns over a ruling party affiliate organization called Forever Associates of Zimbabwe that they said set up tables at polling stations and took details of people walking into voting booths. The head of the African Union mission, former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, said the Forever Association of Zimbabwe (FAZ) activities should be declared “criminal offenses.”
Dozens of local vote monitors also were arrested and taken to court on allegations of subversion that government critics said were trumped-up charges, according to AfricaNews.com.
And there were problems with the actual voting process and concern about the count.
The election had been due to be held on just Wednesday, but voting was extended to Thursday after delays with the printing of ballot papers. Results of the presidential election came a surprising two days after voting closed when the final figures were expected on Monday or even Tuesday considering the election ran over by a day.