Mnangagwa wins Zimbabwe presidential polls by 50.8% - ZEC

Incumbent president Emmerson Mnangagwa has been announced as winner of Zimbabwe’s July 30 presidential elections. The septuagenarian polled 50.8% of votes as against 44.3% by his closest challenger Nelson Chamisa.

Final results

Chamisa: 2,147,437 – 44.3%
Mnangagwa: 2,460,463 – 50.8%

Key update:

With one Province left to be declared to have a final figure on the presidential race there is clearly a very close contest between the two front runners – President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Nelson Chamisa, the main opposition leader.

Nelson Chamisa’s overall tally stands at 1,921,714 whiles Mnangagwa has garnered 2,147,628 votes. Will the vote be entering a runoff?

The Mugabe factor: incidentally, Mashonaland West the outstanding province has a Mugabe factor – it is the former leader’s ancestral home. Could that play a factor in how this race ends?

Mashonaland West is former President Robert Mugabe’s home province!

— Nomsa Maseko (@nomsa_maseko) August 2, 2018

So far, presidential results from 9 out of 10 provinces have been announced. Only 1 province outstanding. ZEC to announce Mashonaland West Province in an hour. The president will be declared later tonight.

Manicaland Province

Nelson Chamisa MDC Alliance = 296, 429
Emmerson Mnangagwa Zanu PF = 292, 938

Midlands Province

Nelson Chamisa MDC Alliance = 255, 059
Emmerson Mnangagwa Zanu PF = 350, 754

Mashonaland Central Province

Nelson Chamisa MDC Alliance = 97, 097
Emmerson Mnangagwa Zanu PF = 366, 785

Matabeleland North Province

Nelson Chamisa MDC Alliance = 137, 611
Emmerson Mnangagwa Zanu PF = 111, 452

Bulawayo Province

Nelson Chamisa MDC Alliance = 144, 107
Emmerson Mnangagwa Zanu PF = 60, 168

Matabeland South Province

Nelson Chamisa MDC Alliance = 90, 292
Emmerson Mnangagwa Zanu PF = 107, 008

Mashonaland East Province

Nelson Chamisa = 189, 024
Emmerson Mnangagwa = 334, 617

Masvingo Province

Nelson Chamisa = 171, 196 votes
Emmerson Mnangagwa = 319, 073 votes

Harare Metropolitan Province

Nelson Chamisa = 548, 889 votes
Emmerson Mnangagwa = 202, 710 votes

Zimbabwe elections chief, Priscilla Chigumba is set to release final results for the 2018 harmonized elections. She took the seat to announce the presidential polls but before the national anthem was sang.

Chigumba then asked all commissioners to make announcements that were outstanding before. A number of them took turns to announce National Assembly and local-level polls. The chairperson herself announced the list of chiefs elected as senators.

Announcements shall span across the ten provinces of the country. She notes that one region is outstanding. She starts with Harare Metropolitan Province where she is the officer in charge.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) finally started announcing presidential results on Thursday evening – within the five days constitutional period it had to declare results.

Mnangagwa run on the ticket of the Zanu-PF party and is now entitled to serve a constitutional term of five years with the option to seek re-election, if he wins.

The MDC Alliance led by 40-year-old lawyer Nelson Chamisa had severally insisted that it had won the presidential polls but that ZEC was holding on to the results because of a rigging agenda backed by government.

Opposition protests broke out on Wednesday afternoon after police failed to control protesters leading to an army intervention. Three people were reported to have died same day even though the figure has been revised to six as at Thursday.

The elections dubbed ‘harmonized elections’ were to elect the first post-Mugabe president, a new legislature and concillors. Zanu PF got an overwhelming parliamentary majority sweeping over 160 of the available 210 seats.

The use of violence by the army has roundly been condemned by observer groups and by international partners. Some western countries issued travel advisories for their citizens especially in the capital, Harare.