Zimbabwe opposition rejects ‘fake’ Mnangagwa victory

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HARARE, Aug 3, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Zimbabwe’s opposition on Friday rejected what
it said were the “fake” results of landmark elections in which President
Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared victor.

Zimbabwe awoke to the news that Mnangagwa, a former ally of Robert Mugabe,
had won the historic first polls since the autocrat’s ousting last year.

The Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) announced that Mnangagwa had scored
50.8 percent of the vote, against 44.3 percent for Nelson Chamisa, the main
opposition leader.

The narrow margin is just enough to avoid a run-off that would have been
called if Mnangagwa had won less than half of the vote.

Chamisa lashed what he called “unverified fake results”.

“The level of opaqueness, truth deficiency, moral decay & values deficit is
baffling,” he wrote on Twitter.

Mnangagwa, who was chosen as Mugabe’s successor in the ruling ZANU-PF party
in November after the brief military intervention that deposed the veteran
leader, hailed his victory as a “new beginning” for Zimbabwe.

“Though we may have been divided at the polls, we are united in our
dreams,” he tweeted.

Opposition allegations of foul play had already sparked a deadly crackdown
on protesters in the capital Harare on Wednesday when troops opened fire,
killing six.

Soldiers and police had cleared the city centre Thursday as the government
vowed not to tolerate any more protests.

But by Friday the streets and markets were crowded as usual.

An army truck and two water cannon were parked outside MDC headquarters,
and in the suburb of Mbare jubilant ZANU-PF supporters waved party banners as
music blared from a car.

“This is a new Zimbabwe, we are happy,” said Tendai Mugadzi, a 32-year-old
IT specialist.

He was untroubled that Mnangagwa had won by a wafer-thin margin.

“It just shows that this was a free and fair election,” he said.

– Fresh start? –

President Cyril Ramaphosa of neighbouring South Africa called to
congratulate Mnangagwa, vowing to work closely with him and calling on “all
political leaders and the people of Zimbabwe to accept the outcome”.

Ramaphosa, in a statement, expressed concern over the protest deaths, but
also emphasised that the opposition “must follow legal remedies provided for
in the constitution and electoral law” if they disputed the results.

Analysts EXX Africa said they expected the situation to calm over the next
few weeks, with big protests unlikely “due to the heavy-handed security
crackdown in the capital and other cities”.

Human Rights Watch said the deadly response suggested that Zimbabwe’s
security forces were “as abusive as ever”, and called for an immediate
inquiry into the violence.

Mnangagwa said on Thursday that he wanted on independent investigation into
the killings, saying he sought to settle differences “peacefully”.

Since independence from Britain in 1980, Zimbabwe has known only two
presidents — Mugabe, who ruled with an iron fist for 37 years, and his
erstwhile right-hand man Mnangagwa.

The new president had promised a free and fair vote that would turn the
page on years of brutal repression, end Zimbabwe’s international isolation
and attract foreign investment to revive the shattered economy.

But Chamisa has repeatedly alleged that the vote was rigged, charging that
the electoral commission — synonymous with fraud under Mugabe — had once
more helped ZANU-PF to steal an election.

An MDC spokesman said early Friday that the party was planning to take the
outcome to the courts, though a legal challenge appears to offer little hope
of overturning the outcome.

– Huge challenges ahead –

Turnout was high at over 80 percent in most of the country’s 10 provinces.

In the parliamentary election, also held on Monday, ZANU-PF won easily.

International observers have praised the largely peaceful conduct of the
election itself, though European Union monitors said they found an “un-level
playing field” that stacked various factors in favour of ZANU-PF, including
heavy coverage by state media.

“It means our suffering will continue,” Emion Chitsate, a security guard at
a shopping centre in the Waterfalls district of Harare, said of the result.

“It’s the same ZANU-PF which brought us to where we are.”

Elections were often marred by fraud and deadly violence under Mugabe, but
ZEC chairwoman Priscilla Chigumba has flatly rejected allegations of bias and
rigging this time around.

Mnangagwa, 75, was the clear election front-runner, but Chamisa — a lawyer
and pastor 35 years his junior — sought to tap into the youth and urban
vote.

Mnangagwa was allegedly involved in voter intimidation during the 2008
elections when then opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the
run-off after at least 200 of his supporters were killed in attacks.

The president must now tackle mass unemployment and an economy shattered by
the Mugabe-backed seizure of white-owned farms, the collapse of agriculture,
hyperinflation and an investment exodus.

Previously solid health and education services are in ruins and millions
have fled abroad to seek work.