Harare [Zimbabwe], September 4 : Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Monday was sworn in for a second five-year term, a week after winning the presidential elections, CNN reported.
He was sworn in for another term in a ceremony attended by thousands of people. Presidents of South Africa, Congo and Mozambique also attended the ceremony.
According to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, Mnangagwa was re-elected after winning more than 2 million votes. He received 52.6 per cent of the total ballots while his main contender Nelson Chamisa of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party, received 44 per cent of the votes, according to CNN.
Nelson Chamisa's party have rejected the election results and alleged electoral fraud. Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party has called for fresh elections. Observers have criticised the elections and said that the election process fell short of many regional and international standards.
In a preliminary report, the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) said "fundamental freedoms were increasingly curtailed" during the polls, CNN reported. It further said that the "acts of violence and intimidation" and "climate of fear" were seen during the elections.
Before the final tally of the polls, Zimbabwe police arrested 41 election monitors for allegedly coordinating the release of results. CCC party on Monday said that it will not challenge Emmerson Mnangagwa's victory in court. CCC spokesperson Promise Mkwananzi said, "Our courts are compromised … it’s pointless to seek remedy in a lopsided court."
Mkwananzi said that their party is challenging the election results "politically and diplomatically." He further said, "We are calling for a fresh, free and fair election … We’ll be applying pressure at the diplomatic level and also locally in the country, in which we are saying the citizens must insist that their votes must be respected, and their votes must count."
Zimbabwe, a southern African nation of 16 million, has a history of election irregularities, and such tactics helped Robert Mugabe maintain power for nearly 40 years, The New York Times reported. In 2017, Mugabe was removed in a coup by Mnangagwa and his allies. The following year, Mnangagwa secured victory over Chamisa in an election by winning just over 50 per cent of the vote.
This year's voting was marred by chaotic delays of more than 10 hours at some polling stations in Zimbabwe as the country’s electoral commission did not deliver ballots on time, according to The New York Times report. Thousands of voters found themselves camping overnight at polling stations due to the delays, which majorly affected urban regions, where Chamisa and his party hold the majority of their support.
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