Zimbabwe President, Emmerson Mnangagwa says he is happy that he won the elections after he was declared a winner by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on Saturday night. He has trounced his main rival Nelson Chamisa of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC).
The opposition alleges that the election was rigged.
ZANU-PF has been in power for more than four decades.
“ I Priscilla Makanyara Chigumba, the Chairperson of the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission, in terms of Section 110 Subsection 3, do hereby declare that Mnangagwa Emmerson Dambudzo of Zanu-PF has received 2, 350 711 votes out of 4, 468 730 valid votes cast in the presidential election. Therefore, Mnangagwa Emmerson Dambudzo of Zanu PF party is declared duly elected president of the republic of Zimbabwe,” says Chigumba announcing the elections results.
Mnangagwa has bagged the second term in Zimbabwe with 52.6% of the vote. His main challenger, Chamisa, who leads the opposition CCC secured 44% of the presidential vote.
“I am so happy that the race was run peacefully, transparently, and fairly broad day light. I am happy that there was a huge turnout by our people. I am sure that very few people in this country will say that the elections were marred by any violence because there was no violence at all and that I think that is what we should, as Zimbabweans cherish.”
He says these elections show how mature Zimbabwe’s democracy is:
Election observers
Mnangagwa hit back at Election Observer Missions.
“Observer missions went beyond their call of duty and began interrogating legislation passed by our Parliament. It is my view that every sovereign country passes their legislation through their legislature and Zimbabwe is not an exception and legislature is composed of people of this country through that arm of the state and not mandate of observers to interrogate the institutions of the sovereign government.”
A coup
Chamisa has rejected the results and did not sign the paperwork to confirm the validity of the poll.
“Mr Mnangagwa knows that he has performed a coup since 2008. A coup on the ballot. 2017 a coup on the elected leader, 2018 a coup on the ballot. He has repeated again in 2023 a coup on the ballot. You cannot survive this for far many times. This time no further. We have drawn a line in the sand. We will not allow you to abuse people. ”
Some Zimbabwean politicians such as Saviour Kasukuwere have given observer missions a pat on the back for reporting accurately on the controversial elections.
“That report will be taken to SADC Troika and the chair is President Hakainde Hichilema in Zambia who will take it to the SADC Summit. And from my point of view, this was a defining moment, it is a new dawn. SADC has been able to get a grip with a number of challenges like voter intimidation, voters roll issues and those entire thing.”
Zimbabwe is battling with a number of challenges and the new government will face a monumental task of fixing the economy and dealing with isolation of this country that was once labelled a jewel of Africa.
Zimbabwe Elections | Dr Kingsley Makhubela weighs in on Zanu-PF’s victory:
