Africa’s oldest president, Robert Mugabe, was declared
winner of Zimbabwe’s election on Saturday, but his rival, Morgan
Tsvangirai, said he would challenge in court a result he called a fraud
that would push the nation back into crisis.
Mugabe, 89, who has ruled the former British colony in southern
Africa since its independence in 1980, was formally proclaimed
re-elected for a five-year term barely an hour after Tsvangirai
announced his planned legal challenge.
“We are going to go to court, we are going to go to the AU (African
Union), we are going to go to the SADC (Southern African Development
Community),” Tsvangirai angrily told a news conference in Harare.
While African observers have already broadly approved Wednesday’s
peaceful vote, independent domestic monitors have described it as deeply
flawed by registration problems that may have disenfranchised up to a
million people.
The United States and European Union, which have imposed sanctions on
Mugabe over previous flawed elections and alleged abuses of power, say
they are concerned over reports of irregularities in the July 31 polls. Western election observers were kept out by Harare.
Zimbabwe’s Election Commission announced Mugabe had beaten Tsvangirai
with just over 61 percent of the votes, against nearly 34 percent for
Tsvangirai.
“Mugabe, Robert Gabriel, of ZANU-PF party, is therefore declared duly
elected president of the Republic of Zimbabwe with effect of today,”
commission head Rita Makarau told a news conference, drawing cheers from
ZANU-PF supporters.
SADC observers have urged Tsvangirai to accept the result. They
expressed relief that the elections had so far avoided the kind of
violent turmoil that marred a vote in 2008. Then, 200 MDC supporters
were killed by ZANU-PF supporters.
SUBDUED REACTION
Tsvangirai, who had been serving as prime minister in a fractious
unity government under Mugabe, said his Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) would present evidence in court to back its charges that the July
31 vote was a “monumental fraud”.
“I thought this election was going to resolve this political crisis.
It has not. It has failed. It has plunged the country back to where it
was,” Tsvangirai said.
Responding to the criticism, Mugabe’s campaign manager Emmerson
Mnangagwa, who is also defense minister, said the MDC had the
“democratic right to do the wrong thing”. But he added: “The route they
are taking will make sure that their political careers are buried and
buried for good.”
Mugabe’s contested victory has raised fears that a fragile economic
recovery under the unity government could falter and that foreign
investors may shy away from ZANU-PF’s drive – already initiated – to
seize majority stakes in foreign firms such as mining companies and
banks.
Mugabe was one of the black guerrilla leaders who helped end white
minority rule in the former Rhodesia, renamed Zimbabwe after a peace
deal brought independence. The southern African state has rich reserves
of chromium, platinum, coal and diamonds.
In Harare’s Mbare township, dozens of ZANU-PF supporters ran through
the streets shouting party slogans and singing. But the reaction was
largely subdued in most of the capital which had previously been an MDC
fiefdom since 2000. “I still can’t believe it. Can you imagine what will happen to this
country now? But let them rule. They say they won, don’t they? We’ll
see,” said Shameck Mukarati, who works in a shopping center supermarket
in Harare’s Newlands suburb. “People are angry but they don’t want any trouble,” said Kenneth Sagonda, another Newlands resident.
Some analysts said ZANU-PF’s latest win could give Mugabe, who has
been vilified for years in the West as a ruthless despot and wrecker of
the economy, a chance to mend ties with foreign donors which have
suspended support over policy differences.
“Mugabe is a wise old man … he knows that if he doesn’t develop the economy,
he’ll have pressure from his citizens,” Trevor Maisiri, senior analyst
for southern Africa for the International Crisis Group, told Reuters.
EU “CONCERNED”
The European Union said it was worried about the allegations of serious flaws in the election.
“The EU is concerned about alleged irregularities and reports of
incomplete participation, as well as the identified weaknesses in the
electoral process and a lack of transparency,” EU foreign policy chief
Catherine Ashton said in a declaration issued on behalf of the 28-nation
bloc.
Expressing similar doubts over the vote’s credibility, the U.S.
government has said that a peaceful and orderly election day “does not
by itself guarantee a free and fair outcome”.
Tsvangirai has called on the African Union and SADC to investigate
the vote, calling it “not credible”. But he faces a struggle to convince
the regional bodies, as their observers have already endorsed the
election as free and peaceful, while acknowledging minor problems.
One member of Zimbabwe’s nine-member Electoral Commission, Mkhululi
Nyathi, has resigned since the vote, citing doubts about the integrity
of the results.
Given the sanctions, the reaction from the West will be key to the
future of Zimbabwe’s economy, which is still struggling with the
aftermath of a decade-long slump and hyperinflation that ended in 2009
when the Zimbabwe dollar was scrapped
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