27 Aug 2023 at 00:51
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been elected for a second term, reports the South African country’s election commission. According to the opposition and international observers, the vote was not conducted according to standards.
“Mnangagwa Emmerson Dambudzo of the ZANU-PF party has been declared the elected president of the Republic of Zimbabwe,” the chairman of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said at a news conference, adding that the president received 52.6 percent of the vote.
Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa won 44 percent of the vote, but disputed that result. Via X (formerly Twitter), his party, the Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC), says that the count was done “hastily” and “without verification”. The last presidential election in 2018 was also questioned by the CCC.
The head of a team of international observers from the European Union said on Friday that there had been intimidation and violence against opponents in the run-up to the vote. For example, local human rights activists were arrested.
Eighty-year-old Mnangagwa, nicknamed ‘the crocodile’, succeeded the autocratic Robert Mugaba in 2017. Their party ZANU-PF has therefore been in power for more than 40 years without interruption. Since the change of power, relations with the West have cooled. For example, the United States has imposed sanctions on Mnangagwa’s son for corruption.
Beeld: Getty Images
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2023-08-26 22:51:28
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