He took 61 per cent of the vote as against 34 per cent for Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
The Zimbabwe Election Commission on Saturday, August 3, 2013 declared President Robert Gabriel Mugabe, 89, re-elected for a five-year term following the July 31, 2013 general elections, Reuters news agency reported.
Commission head, Rita Makarau, told a news conference that Mugabe got 61 per cent of vote while his main challenger, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai had 34. Results from last week's parliamentary election also showed a defeat for Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change-T with only 49 seats compared to Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, with ZANU-PF with 158 seats.
Reacting to the results, the MDC-T leader described them as fraudulent and promised to challenge them in court as well as petition the African Union and the Southern African Development Community, SADC. He said his party would no longer work with ZANU-PF party and boycott government institutions. Meanwhile, South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma has expressed congratulations to President Robert Mugabe on the "successful, harmonised elections," BBC said. He called on all parties to accept the results.
The African Union that had 70 observers said its initial report suggested the election was free and credible. The AU's mission chief, former Nigerian leader, Olusegun Obasanjo, said there were incidents that could have been avoided and asked Zimbabwe's election’s authorities to investigate claims that voters had been turned away from polling stations.
The southern African regional bloc, SADC, with 600 observers, broadly endorsed the election as free and peaceful, but said it would reserve judgement on the fairness of the process. The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), which had 7,000 workers observing the vote, alleged that problems with voter registration left up to one million people unable to cast their ballots, mostly in urban areas regarded as MDC strongholds.
Robert Mugabe has been the leader of Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. He was a key figure in the struggle for independence that involved a bitter bush war against the white minority government. Mugabe was sworn in for another term in June 2008 after a run-off vote from which Tsvangirai withdrew because of alleged attacks on his supporters. Mugabe agreed a power-sharing deal with who was made Prime Minister.
The new census constitution adopted this year curbs presidential powers, sets a two-term five-year limit for the office, creates elected provincial legislatures and establishes a constitutional court.
