Zimbabwe : Opposition leader to prove presidential election was rigged

It is now clear that Zimbabwe's opposition leader is more popular than first thought having won over 40 percent of the votes in the presidential election. Those who reckoned that the president would win with a landslide seriously miscalculated.

According to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) Mr Mnangagwa won 2.46 million votes, only narrowly avoiding a second round run-off against Mr Chamisa, who got 2.14 million votes.



The opposition leader said that he would challenge the outcome. He also demanded that ZEC release “proper, verified” tallies. Mr Chamisa's request was supported by Philippe Van Damme, the EU ambassador to Zimbabwe.



Feedback from a number of international monitoring teams has singled the ZEC out over its “lack of transparency”, unexplained delays and irregularities in handling the voters’ roll and ballot papers. It was the frustration over delays and fears of a fix that prompted protests that led to clashes with the army and left six dead.