According to Zimbabwe's elections commission incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa had won this week's presidential election with roughly 53% of the vote, but the opposition and analysts immediately questioned the result.
ZANU-PF supporters started singing and cheering at the results centre after the elections commission said Emmerson Mnangagwa had won.
Mnangagwa took over from longtime leader Robert Mugabe after a 2017 army coup.
He was widely expected to secure re-election for a second term as analysts said the contest was heavily skewed in favour of the ZANU-PF ruling party, in power for more than four decades.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said Mnangagwa's main challenger, Nelson Chamisa, who leads the opposition Citizens' Coalition for Change (CCC) party, secured 44% of the presidential vote.
Mnangagwa already narrowly defeated Chamisa at the last presidential election in 2018. The opposition alleges that election was rigged but the constitutional court upheld the result.
The opposition claims victory
The opponent denounces a "coup by the ballot box".
"We won this election," hammered Nelson Chamisa to the press.
“We are in the lead, we will challenge these results, assembled hastily and without real verification.”
A CCC spokesperson said in a post on Twitter that the party rejected "any result hastily assembled without proper verification".
🟡We will not accept FAKE results. The best court to announce an electoral WINNER is the PEOPLE’s court, that is the highest court in an election and we are going to win in that court. pic.twitter.com/gLz2J2Ydei
— Citizens' Coalition for Change (@CCCZimbabwe) August 26, 2023
“We are ready to form the next government” added Nelson Chamisa during his address to the media, including RFI's correspondent.
Delays, irregularities, and a "climate of fear"
ZANU-PF denies it has an unfair advantage or seeks to influence the outcome of elections through rigging.
Voting in this week's presidential and parliamentary elections was meant to be wrapped up within one day on Wednesday, but it was extended into Thursday in some wards after the late distribution of ballot papers.
While the run-up to the election has been largely free from violence, the police routinely ban opposition rallies and arrest opposition supporters using Zimbabwe's tough public order laws.
Southern African regional bloc SADC's mission noted issues including voting delays, the banning of rallies and biased state media coverage.
Nicole Beardsworth, a politics lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, in South Africa, said she thought the late announcement was probably a response to the critique by SADC and other election observers.
"We all have a lot of questions about the speed with which ZEC is announcing presidential results," she said.
The head of the European Union's observer mission on Friday said this week's vote took place in a "climate of fear".
(with newswires)
