Zimbabwe election: Mnangagwa narrowly wins historic presidential poll

By Jason Burke | The Guardian |

Zanu-PF leader took 50.8% of the vote, says electoral commission chair, who urges country to ‘move on’. Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe’s president and the leader of the ruling Zanu-PF party, has won the country’s historic and hotly contested presidential election.

Officials from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced early on Friday that Mnangagwa had received 2.46m votes or 50.8% of the 4.8m votes cast.

Nelson Chamisa, the candidate of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), won 2.14m votes and 44.3% of the overall, the ZEC said. Mnangagwa needed to win by more than 50% to avoid a run-off vote.

Priscilla Chigumba, the chair of the ZEC, urged the country to “move on” with the hopeful spirit of election day and beyond the “blemishes” of Wednesday’s chaos: “May God bless this nation and its people,” she said.

Mnangagwa tweeted that he was “humbled” by the result. “This is a new beginning. Let us join hands, in peace, unity & love, & together build a new Zimbabwe for all!” he said.

The MDC rejected the results even before they had been announced in full. Minutes before the final result, the MDC’s chairman, Morgen Komichi, made an impromptu televised statement at the commission, saying the election was “fraudulent” and that the party would challenge the results in court. He was then removed from the stage by police.

A few Mnangagwa supporters celebrated near the entrance to the conference centre where the results were declared but there was little in the way of public celebrations or protests in Harare. Police and soldiers patrolled the streets of the city overnight.

Charity Manyeruke, who teaches political science at the University of Zimbabwe, said she was delighted. “There is continuity, stability,” she said at the conference centre. “Zimbabwe is poised for nation-building.”

“It means our suffering will continue,” said Emion Chitsate, a security guard at shopping centre in the Waterfalls district of Harare. “It’s the same Zanu-PF which brought us to where we are.”

The election was the first to be held in the former British colony since Robert Mugabe, the 94-year-old autocrat who ruled for 37 years, was ousted by the army nine months ago. The result may determine the future of the impoverished nation of 16 million people for decades to come.

The count took more than three days, leading to growing tensions and calls from the international community for a swift resolution. Three people were shot dead when the army fired on opposition protesters in the centre of Harare, the capital, on Wednesday afternoon.

A joint statement by foreign election observers released shortly before the results were announced expressed “grave concern” over the deadly violence and urged the electoral commission to release the full results “expeditiously” and in a transparent manner.

The statement by European Union, US, Commonwealth, African Union and other observer missions denounced the “excessive use of force” used to calm Wednesday’s protests and urged Zimbabwe’s army and police to use restraint.

‘We thought this had gone away’: Zimbabwe violence dashes dreams

Mnangagwa’s score was lower than some expected. Zanu-PF had swept to a two-thirds majority in simultaneous parliamentary elections and was broadly considered favourites by analysts. However, the opposition campaign had gathered significant momentum in the last days of campaigning.

The announcement was delayed while figures for Mashonaland West, a major province that is a Zanu-PF stronghold were finalised, and was disrupted by an MDC spokesman who said the party rejected the results because they had not been verified by polling agents.

All polling station data would be made available to the media and party officials, ZEC said.

Zimbabwe now faces new uncertainty and probably instability.

Chamisa told reporters before the results were announced that he was confident of victory and that his party would do “lots of things within the confines of legality and the constitution to defend our vote”.

Asked if he would tell his followers to protest, the MDC leader said that his people were already on the streets. “That’s where they stay. If anything I will need to call them off the streets … there has to be a government of the people,” he said.

Although the campaign has been free of the systematic violence that marred previous polls, the MDC has repeatedly claimed it has been hindered by a flawed electoral roll, ballot paper malpractice, voter intimidation, bias in the electoral commission and handouts to voters from the ruling party. Several of its complaints have been upheld by monitors’ reports.

Eighteen opposition officials were detained by police during a raid on the MDC’s headquarters in Harare on Thursday afternoon.

Zimbabwe hopes to reintegrate into the international community after years of isolation. Foreign powers will now have to decide whether the elections give Mnangagwa and the Zanu-PF the legitimacy needed to seek to rejoin institutions such as the Commonwealth.

Without a massive and rapid infusion of foreign aid, the country faces total economic breakdown.

Polls had earlier given Mnangagwa, the 75-year-old, dour former spy chief known as “the Crocodile” for his reputation for ruthless cunning, a slim lead over Chamisa, 40, a brilliant if sometimes wayward orator.

Support for Zanu-PF has historically been strongest in rural areas, where more than two-thirds of Zimbabwe’s voters live. The party dominated its traditional heartland provinces of Mashonaland Central and East, while the MDC won the major cities of Harare and Bulawayo convincingly.

Ruling party loyalists defended the lengthy delay before the results were announced.

“The world is watching. We cannot go outside the law. We cannot make a mistake. We want to make Zimbabwe an example of democracy in Africa,” said Bright Matonga, a former Zanu-PF information minister.

For the first time since Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980 after a brutal guerrilla war against a white supremacist regime, Mugabe was not on the ballot paper. In an astonishing intervention on Sunday, the former president said he would not vote for his former party, Zanu-PF, or the current president, and endorsed Chamisa.